Jonathan Pinkston, an owner of Soft Medicine Sanctuary, a health and wellness business in Sebastopol, and the founder of the nascent Sebastopol Bloom Festival, has been ousted from the business after allegations of assault and financial coercion have surfaced in court documents and on social media.
Pinkston, 38, has been accused of sexual assault, physical abuse and financial coercion by a former business partner and girlfriend who is the mother of his child, Humboldt County court records show.
Pinkston denied the allegations in a Feb. 25 letter to Soft Medicine Sanctuary employees, saying “all of my sexual relationships have been consensual” and “I have never in my life physically or sexually attacked anyone.”
Clairese Mayo, 27, accused Pinkston of repeated sexual abuse between February and May 2025, followed by an alleged sexual assault in June after they had broken up and she’d moved to McKinleyville in Humboldt County, according to a 168-page restraining order request filed in November.
The documents also detail allegations of physical assault, forced entry and financial extortion that Mayo said Pinkston used to see their child after she’d moved out of the Sonoma County home they shared before she gave birth.
The domestic violence restraining order request, granted Dec. 1 by a Humboldt County judge, accused Pinkston of a “history of physical, sexual assault and medical neglect” of Mayo during their 10-month relationship.
Pinkston denied the allegations in court documents contesting the restraining order request.
“I never heard a word from Clairese or anyone else about any issues of abuse or control,” he said in his court response.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office told The Press Democrat it has an active investigation into a reported sexual assault in June in McKinleyville.
Pinkston is also being taken to court in Sonoma County by one of his business partners who seeks information about the financial condition of the business, citing trouble with the California Labor Commission and Internal Revenue Service.
“I have reason to be concerned” about the business, Kakouti Khamda wrote in her Sonoma County court petition. “Jonathan Pinkston claims that the company is worth $3 (million) but it is unable to pay employees on time, maintain inventory or hire necessary staff due to lack of funds.”
The public allegations made by business partners and his former girlfriend have surfaced in recent weeks in online forums and in the circles of his patrons, business partners and employees at Soft Medicine Sanctuary, which opened in September 2022. He has since expanded the business with shops in San Francisco, Arcata and Nevada County.
Last year, he also organized a farm-to-table food, mindful movement and community-building event called the Sebastopol Bloom Festival. He has also signaled interest in running for local elected office.
Some of those coming forward to denounce him now in court documents include former and current business partners.
“In addition to flat-out lying, he lacks transparency, spins every story to paint himself in the best light (and) refuses to be accountable for mistakes,” Will Wright, a partner in the Arcata teahouse, said in a written statement included in the Humboldt County restraining order request.
Pinkston has “no regard for the truth nor the system that he has attempted to manipulate to get his way,” Patrick Silas, a former business partner out of Hawaii, said in a written statement in the same Humboldt County court documents. “Over the more recent time, it has become clear to me that he is a very different person than he presents himself as.”
In a Feb. 24 community statement posted on Instagram, Soft Medicine Sanctuary said the business was “shedding (its) majority founding equity owner and moving to yield complete control of the future of their majority share of the company to a transitional board of staff and managers.”
Buckminster Barrett, one of those co-managers, did not return The Press Democrat’s requests for comment.
Alleged abuse
In her 168-page request for a restraining order filed in November, Mayo accused Pinkston of repeated sexual abuse between February and May 2025, followed by an alleged sexual assault in June after they had broken up and she’d moved to McKinleyville in Humboldt County.
The documents also detail allegations of physical assault, forced entry and financial extortion that Mayo said Pinkston used to see their child after she’d moved out of the Sonoma County home they shared before she gave birth.
The domestic violence restraining order request granted Dec. 1 by a Humboldt County judge, accused Pinkston of a “history of physical, sexual assault and medical neglect” of Mayo during their 10-month relationship. The order included required Pinkston to maintain a 100-yeard distance, have supervised visitations and record all communications with Mayo.
Pinkston, 38, denied the allegations in court documents contesting the restraining order request.
“I never heard a word from Clairese or anyone else about any issues of abuse or control,” he said in his court response. “I have only heard from Clairese that she does not want to share parenting time with our daughter.”
Pinkston has not been charged with any crimes.
Erin Inskip, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office public information officer, said the Humboldt County District Attorney was also reviewing a reported Sept. 8 incident during which Pinkston is alleged to have shoved Mayo’s mother in an altercation witnessed by Mayo and one of her friends.
Pinkston declined to speak with The Press Democrat or answer questions about the allegations made in court. Pinkston is seeking custody of the child he shares with Mayo in a Sonoma County court case.
‘A lack of … compassion’
Mayo spoke with The Press Democrat on several occasions since late 2025, detailing her experience with Pinkston. She asked that her published comments be limited to those she made for the court record.
Mayo and Pinkston first met in fall 2024, when Mayo sought to open the tea house in Arcata, according to the court documents she filed. Pinkston initially came into the operation as an investor, according to a source with close knowledge of the deal. Mayo and Pinkston began dating in October 2024.
During a trip to Kauai, Mayo discovered she was pregnant, court documents allege.
As soon as Mayo became pregnant, Pinkston “insisted” she move in with him at his rural Occidental property, roughly four hours away from her home in Arcata — separating her “from family, friends, community and away from” her prenatal care, according to court documents.
While she was pregnant and living on the Occidental property, Mayo developed a rare condition called hyperemesis gravidarium, which causes vomiting, high fever and dehydration, she alleged.
Pinkston showed little concern — “a lack of recognition and compassion … in the seriousness of her sickness and discomfort,” Mayo’s friend Hayley Faye Rhouault said in her court statement.
One night, when she was four months pregnant and running a fever of 104 degrees, she begged Pinkston to take her to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, according to court records. Mayo claimed that Pinkston, a licensed acupuncturist, told her he knew better than medical professionals and alleged he forced her into an “overheated bath.”
“The water will hydrate you. You don’t need an IV,” he said, according to Mayo’s court statement. She alleged he left her there, unattended, and she lost consciousness in a “deep, overfilled claw foot bathtub.”
“I feared my life was at his mercy being so ill and intentionally put further in a position to die,” Mayo wrote. “My child’s, too.”
Alleged sexual abuse
During her pregnancy, Mayo alleged Pinkston “also engaged in sexual violence and reproductive coercion.”
“He forcibly used an oversized sex toy to attempt to ‘stretch … dilate my cervix’ while I was pregnant,” she said in court records.
Those instances occurred from February through May 2025. She would wake up in the mornings to “his sexual force while pregnant and sick vomiting,” she wrote. Pinkston claimed “it would ‘help birth,’” she wrote. She believed it could put her at risk of trauma and cause injury, she added.
Their relationship ended in May, according to court documents. After that, it took Mayo two weeks to make a plan to leave the Occidental property. She found a place to stay in McKinleyville. She left with the help of two friends while Pinkston was out of town, she alleged.
He paid her rent in McKinleyville, according to court records.
In June, when Pinkston visited her McKinleyville house to deliver supplies for the Arcata teahouse, Mayo “explicitly stated no sexual contact was permitted because we broke up,” she recounted in court records.
That night, “I awoke to him on top and forcing himself inside of me,” Mayo said in court documents. “I froze, as he proceeded without consent, pressuring me under him.”
“Afterward, I vomited and returned to bed,” Mayo said in court documents. “I froze in shock of the roughness and was so scared to not comply with his actions. His excuse was that ‘we have a baby together.’”
“I deny the allegations,” Pinkston wrote in his Humboldt County court response. “Clairese chose to fabricate allegations so that she need not share time with our child.”
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it had an open investigation into a reported June sexual assault but could not provide additional information, citing the active status of the case.
‘You pushed her’
On Sept. 8, the baby’s due date, Mayo went into early labor. She had planned an at-home birth, she alleged.
Pinkston arrived at the home unannounced, to pay rent to landlord Brian O’Hay, who described Pinkston at that time as “overly aggressive and verbally pushy,” court documents show.
The two men, as well as Mayo and her mother, stood outside while that transaction went down, according to court documents.
After O’Hay left, the two women “quickly went inside,” Mayo’s mother said in her court statement. “I had shut the door except for approximately 8 inches when Jonathan stuck his arm through the crack and violently pushed my left shoulder, knocking me backwards.”
He “forced entry, and physically assaulted my mother, Lisa, who was then recovering from vascular surgery. He shoved her in the chest and neck area with enough force to cause lasting pain,” Mayo wrote.
Pinkston then “sat down in a chair and said he wasn’t leaving,” Mayo’s mother said in her court statement.
Rhouault, who also was at the house at the time, said in court records Mayo’s mother was “visibly distraught and hurt from being pushed.”
But Pinkston refused to leave, according to witness statements in the Humboldt County court records. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said.
Mayo’s mother called the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. Pinkston left before authorities arrived. O’Hay also returned to the house, saying he didn’t feel comfortable leaving the women with Pinkston after witnessing his demeanor, according to his court statement for the restraining order request.
The Sheriff’s Office has forwarded its case to the District Attorney’s Office.
Soft Medicine Sanctuary
In her Jan. 20 petition in Sonoma County court Khamda calls herself a managing member of Soft Medicine Sanctuary, along with Pinkston, Barrett, Kathleen Doherty, Kai Harris and Adam Bulbulia.
Khamda, who seeks the “books and records” of the company, said in her petition that Pinkston told her the company was worth $3 million, despite being “unable to pay employees on time, maintain inventory or hire necessary staff due to lack of funds.”
She noted another manager has also sought the same information about the company; interviews between The Press Democrat and managers who wish that their names not be used.
The managers had reason to be concerned about the business.
On Nov. 7, 2025, the business was issued a citation by the California Labor Commission for failing to provide workers compensation for its employees for a period of 12 months. The labor commission fined the company $18,000, according to the citation obtained by The Press Democrat through a California Public Records Act request.
The citation came after an employee, who wished to not have her name used, filed a complaint with the labor commission when she injured herself washing a pot in the kitchen.
In an interview with The Press Democrat, the employee said she went to the doctor after her left pinky finger became “swollen and turned black.” She went to urgent care to get help. When she told the provider the injury occurred at work, she was told the doctor could “look your business up online.”
But Soft Medicine Sanctuary did not have workers compensation insurance at the time, according to the employee. The employee said Pinkston told her to pay for the medical care out of pocket, which he eventually reimbursed, she said. Two other Soft Medicine Sanctuary employees who wished to not have their names used due to fear of retribution saw the injury and followed up with the employee, corroborated this report with The Press Democrat.
The company was able to remain open after Pinkston provided labor commission agents with a copy of updated workers compensation insurance, according to documents provided by the California Labor Commission.
The employee told The Press Democrat she quit three weeks later.
John Burgess / The Press Democrat
The Soft Medicine Sanctuary includes an event space for workshops and movement classes and a retail space Friday, Nov. 22, 2024 in Sebastopol. (John Burgess / The Press Democrat)
Pinkston told labor commission agents that the policy didn’t renew due to a failed autopay in October 2024, according to a Nov. 21 to the labor commission email reviewed by The Press Democrat.
“This is obviously our fault for not double checking that the payment went through in nov [sic] 2024 and following up on that,” he wrote to Adrian Hardesty, a labor commission agent assigned to the case.
Failed payments have occurred within the business, according to Khamda’s petition and interviews with employees.
Paychecks have often bounced and “people do not get paid on time for the most part,” a chef for the cafe, who also requested to not be named, told The Press Democrat.
A chef at the cafe and others with inside information who spoke with The Press Democrat noted that the cafe often does not have the needed ingredients, so employees have to run to Whole Foods with a business card to buy items on the fly.
Those business cards however, are sometimes declined. Records reviewed by The Press Democrat show that orders made to Amazon for supplies have been cancelled due to insufficient funds.
Additionally, in a Nov. 6 email reviewed by The Press Democrat, Blueprint Resolution Service, Soft Medicine Sanctuary’s tax consultant, told Pinkston the business owes more than $138,000 in employee income tax, penalty and interest, which it has not paid since 2023.
Khamda’s petition alleged the business owes more than $135,000 in back taxes to the IRS “that have not been paid in years.”
Khamda and Pinkston are slated to meet in Sonoma County Superior Court for a case management conference on July 14.
Neither Pinkston nor his attorney returned requests for comment.
Soft Medicine Sanctuary’s future is unclear, but the managers, in a Feb. 24 Instagram post, said they “hope this transition can foster an even brighter and more abundant future for this much needed local community hub.”
Amie Windsor is the Community Journalism Team Lead with The Press Democrat. She can be reached at amie.windsor@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5218.
