Whoopi Goldberg’s marijuana company, WhoopFam, is locked in a court battle with Paterson, New Jersey’s disgraced former mayor Joey Torres over a failed dispensary deal.
The dispute stems from a partnership between WhoopFam and Torres’ nonprofit, House of HOPE, which leased a 1st Avenue building in September 2023 for a planned recreational store. WhoopFam paid $5,665 a month for a year but stopped payments last September after the city refused to approve the location. Torres’ nonprofit then sued for more than $52,000 in back rent, while WhoopFam fired back with a countersuit seeking nearly $168,000 for startup costs, including a $60,000 city application fee.
Court filings show WhoopFam alleges Torres assured them the property already had municipal approval for cannabis retail, an assertion the company says was false. “Torres knew or should have known that his representation was not accurate,” their complaint states.
Torres, who spent 13 years in prison before launching his nonprofit to help the formerly incarcerated, had promised jobs at the dispensary for those reentering society. But his project never materialized. House of HOPE doesn’t actually own the building—it leases it from local landlord Richard Salerno.
WhoopFam did have initial support from Mayor Andre Sayegh, who endorsed its state license application in 2022. Still, by mid-2023, the Paterson City Council advanced three other dispensary proposals and excluded WhoopFam. Those proposals were ultimately denied for being too close to sensitive locations such as schools and houses of worship.
The case, initially filed in landlord-tenant court, has been moved to New Jersey’s Law Division, where civil lawsuits are handled, setting the stage for an extended legal fight between the celebrity-backed brand and the former mayor’s nonprofit.
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