Melissa Mentele Tried to Turn a Blog Article Into a Criminal Matter. The Case Is Over. The Questions Are Not.

Melissa Mentele Tried to Turn a Blog Article Into a Criminal Matter. The Case Is Over. The Questions Are Not.

By Jason Karimi | WeedPress

April 6, 2026

The charges against me were dismissed on February 12, 2026. That ended the case. It did not answer the larger question of how a dispute over published speech was allowed to escalate into criminal process at all.

I wrote about a matter of public concern. What followed was not a rebuttal on the merits, not a factual correction, and not a serious public response to what I published. Instead, the dispute escalated into criminal charges.

That sequence deserves scrutiny.

When published speech on a public issue is followed by criminal process against the speaker, the public is entitled to ask direct questions. What statements were made, and what scrutiny was applied before the machinery of the state was set in motion over an article?

Now that the charges have been dismissed, the core point is harder to avoid. The case is over. The public is still left with the record of what was said, what was done, and what it took to bring the matter to an end.

The dismissal also clarifies something else. The problem was never criticism itself. Public criticism, pointed commentary, and adversarial reporting are part of open debate, especially when the people involved seek influence in public policy fights. Anyone who chooses to operate in that space does not get to treat scrutiny as illegitimate simply because it is uncomfortable or damaging.

That is where leadership comes into view.

Melissa has said publicly, including on a podcast, that she wants to move beyond business responsibilities and speak on behalf of patients. If that is the role she intends to claim, then the public is entitled to ask what that advocacy looks like in practice. Does it mean serious representation of patient interests, or more public attacks by name, more personal insults, and more efforts to behave as though one person gets to decide who is legitimate enough to speak in South Dakota’s medical-cannabis policy debates?

That is not a private grievance. It is a public question.

South Dakota’s cannabis politics have suffered for years from ego, gatekeeping, score-settling, and personal vendettas dressed up as principle. People who claim to speak for patients should be held to a higher standard. They should persuade rather than threaten, debate rather than smear, and answer criticism rather than try to turn criticism into legal peril for the person who published it.

What happened to me should not be normalized. A blog article should not become the pretext for criminal escalation built on questionable claims. A publisher should not have to wonder whether criticism of a public actor will be met with retaliatory process rather than a public response.

The case against me is over. The larger accountability question is not.

A dismissal can close a file. It cannot erase the public record. And it cannot insulate anyone from the obvious question left behind when criticism turns into criminal process: who thought this was acceptable, and why should the public trust their judgment now?

Update one: views on my 17 year long blog are up 2500% today:

Update 2 April 7: 7:50 pm: added timeline of events

March 2024: petitioner libeled me on Facebook as a “liars to which over 300 people liked the post

November 9th 2025: petitioner initiated verbal attack/reputational dispute invoking prior authority as member of the MMOC regulatory board

November 15th: petitioner on Facebook libeled further and stated intent to attack me; screenshot of post taken 2nd 2026 and witnessed by a witness; post received over 50 likes 

December 11: second tpo app approved by different judge after first tpo denied

Saturday December 13th: tpo order denied served sheriff advised it wasn’t approved

December 15th: after a second TPO was filed, sheriff served approved TPO with no evidence that stated broadly “no blogging” “no social media” and “no contact” 

Saturday December 20: I was arrested booked and released on PR for violating the TPO for three blog articles according to a recorded phone call I made to the sheriffs office:

Hanson County Sheriff Phone Call Transcript copy.docxDownload

December 30: motions to dismiss filed by me 

January 2: my motions and evidence served on petitioner 

January 5: petitioner gave evidence for 45 minutes after which judge dismissed petition on grounds of no evidence, after which petitioner argued post judgment with judge. Am not blogging specific/elaborating on story details until post lawsuit.

Jan 12: lawyer consult request 

January 14: letter of demand, preservation sent 

February 8th: petitioner having filed a second TPO in a separate county was told on record by judge to “get thicker skin” if she wanted to be in public politics; second TPO dismissed in Minnehaha county. Petitioner alleged I was forbidden from blogging at the hearing; I provided a transcript of a phone call with sheriff Brandon wherein he stated no, blogging wasn’t forbidden and the entire thing was too confusing to handle correctly so I paid the price of the confusion of the law and the malicious abuse of process by petitioner mental SEE TRANSCRIPT OF MINNEHAHA HEARING petitioner complained about having to quote spend time away from capital in a courtroom end quote to which I replied you’re the one who filed for this hearing after losing the same hearing weeks ago. Petitioner tried to file 58 blog articles from December, judge denied all into evidence due to collateral estoppel and demanded quote only new evidence since the last TPO hearing end quote and the sole evidence provided was one blog article seen here: https://weedpress.org/2026/01/08/marijuana-reclassification-what-it-means-for-south-dakotans/ note the article doesn’t mention petitoner and only mentions petitioners uninformed comment in Dakota news now statement that nobody understood federal law to which my blog article replied I understand federal law; petitioners sole evidence of any interaction was over public comments she made to the news in 2026 December and that me saying I know laws she doesn’t makes her look stupid unprofessional uninformed hurts her reputation and causes her emotional suffering for being made to look stupid the judge told her get a thicker skin if you’re going to be in leadership and politics judge also said something to the effect of being smarter would go a long way she’s embarrassed because when I tried to offer feedback and correction she freaked out couldn’t handle correction or anybody being smarter than her and it hurt her feelings. This was all said in court record to the best of my recollection, as well as my fiance who attended court with me. 

February 12: misdemeanor charge from arrest from Dec 20 dismissed. No notice given of dismissal until April 6.

April 6: phone call to sheriff Brandon; sheriff advised no court hearing April 7 as he remembered case being dismissed; he pulled over to check and advised that yes case was dismissed by state on Feb 12; dismissal came according to my understanding of sheriff Brandon call, after state talked to sheriff Brandon who advised state the order was confusing the blogs I was arrested for had nothing to do with petitioner mental case was dismissed accordingly as there was no probable cause for the underlying arrest I advised the sheriff that I had paperwork from mental petitioner advising in handwriting that the TPO issued was issued incorrectly due to a small town not having many TPOs and the judge being confused; arrest only happened after petitioner requested me be arrested, but the arrest was a mistake as I did nothing in my blog articles to violate any court order, an order that was based on an application of known falsehoods and statements made by COO Mentele, with absurd and disturbing allegations pulled out of thin air that fell apart for lack of evidence on the record in repeat filings in multiple venues.