HICKORY, N.C. — A Hickory woman is suing The Walt Disney Co. and the Orange County Sheriff’s office after she said she was wrongfully arrested for possession of cannabidiol, also known as CBD oil.
Attorney Ben Crump has filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of Hester Burkhalter, 69, and her family, CNN reported. Crump told the network that Burkhalter, of Hickory, was “wrongfully arrested and taken into custody at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, for possessing federally legal CBD oil” in 2019.
Body camera video shows Hester Burkhalter’s arrest in 2019. During a search, security found the CBD, which is legal, and said it tested positive for marijuana.
According to a complaint filed July 29, the named defendants “arrested and detained, processed as a narcotics felon and strip-searched a harmless, entirely blameless American great-grandmother, whose only ‘crime’ was her desire to lessen crippling osteoarthritic pain with a doctor-recommended hemp-based oil, while giving her family, including a disabled adult daughter and two adopted pre-teen children, an enjoyable vacation.”
“The disgraceful events that animate this lawsuit ‘pull back the curtain’ on the casual cruelty and unpardonable ineptitude that lie at Disney’s cold corporate heart,” the complaint continued.
The suit requests $6 million in compensatory damages and $12 million in punitive damages for Burkhalter, as well as millions of additional dollars for her family, CNN reported.
CBD oil is derived from industrial hemp, and contains little or no THC, the active drug found in marijuana. The substance is legal in Florida.
Even after a field test revealed that Burkhalter’s CBD oil contained no THC, the sheriff’s deputy still charged her with felony narcotics possession.
“Adding insult to injury,” the complaint continues, “Disney took the gratuitous step of summarily ejecting Hester and her family from its facilities in perpetuity as ‘trespassers,’ thereby cementing the defamatory stigma and unmerited humiliation precipitated by defendants’ disgraceful conduct.”
Burkhalter was arrested and jailed for 15 hours, but the charges were later dropped. She said the incident still haunts her.
“It affects you when something like this happens. You know you have to take off your clothes in front of people. It affects me,” she said.
Cox Media Group
