The owner of the long-defunct Daquiri Factory filed a lawsuit on Aug. 21 against a long list of City of Spokane officials.
The Daiquiri Factory was once a bar in Downtown Spokane owned by Jamie Pendleton. It sparked protests and several lawsuits, starting back in February of 2014, over the names of drinks – like Date Grape Kool-Aid – and the use of trademarked logos, including Gonzaga University’s logo.
Pendleton has been housed in the Spokane County Jail since May 30, 2018, on nine counts of second-degree identity theft, five counts of forgery, first-degree perjury and one count of first degree identity theft. He is being held on $5,000 bond.
Pendleton filed the latest lawsuit from jail against the City of Spokane, Spokane Police, Spokane Fire, the Downtown Spokane Partnership and the prosecutor’s office, just to name a few.
He claims they worked together in the violation of due process to licensing, civil conspiracy, discrimination, torturous interference with business expectancy, negligent supervision, defamation, false light and the violation of the Federal Public Records Act.
In the suit, Pendleton claims the defendants manufactured police reports, city occupancy reports, citations and police data in 2014 to justify the “targeting and discrimination” against him when he tried to reopen the bar in 2016.
The lawsuit claims media outlets in Spokane were given application documents from the city of Spokane that show private information. It also says several of the defendants engaged in discriminatory acts and conspired to impede his business in 2014 by manufacturing “illegal arrest police reports.”
In the lawsuit, Pendleton said the landlord of The Daquiri Factory was working with city officials and the Downtown Partnership to try to destroy his business, so it could lease the property to someone else. He also claims the landlord was operating without a business license in 2014 when he was wrongly evicted.
Pendleton claims the defendants worked together again to report false information to the liquor control board about calls for service. He said officers created public complaints themselves then used them to write citations and police reports.
The lawsuit also said Pendleton’s business was treated unfairly when city employees limited the capacity for 224 to 95 in 2016 and denied him an entertainment license. He said this happened again because of fake complaints. According to the suit, the city of Spokane held up a public records request to conceal all of its “wrongdoing.”
Pendleton is seeking monetary, compensatory and punitive damages against all of the defendants for total loss of business.
