Kendall Craig Farris’ website is filled with influential endorsements for the drug prevention program he founded. Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl called them “amazing tools which our schools and communities desperately need” and thanked Farris for meeting with him and his staff.

Something went wrong, however, and Farris was arrested Thursday at a Starbucks in El Segundo after Redondo Beach police set up a drug buy over the phone.

Farris, 47, arrived at the coffeehouse in a taxi, police said. An undercover officer gave him an envelope containing $480 in exchange for methamphetamine and ecstasy tablets, which turned out to be fake, authorities said. Farris was arrested at 3:40 p.m.

Farris was arraigned Friday on charges of selling a substance that he alleged was drugs. He is being held on $106,500 bail and could not be reached for comment.


Farris, according to his website, was founder of the Over the Wall Foundation in Marina del Rey and a recovering alcoholic and addict. His mission, he says, is “to help youth, schools, and families prevent drug and alcohol abuse before it starts, and intervene in any drug abuse which may already have begun.”

He is the author of “Drugs, Kids and Crime: Surviving Our Drug Obsessed Culture.”

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jeff.gottlieb@latimes.com