San Diego

The owners and a former supervisor of a Vista construction company pleaded guilty Tuesday to cheating employees out of tens of thousands of dollars in wages by falsifying payroll records on a painting project at Camp Pendleton. The executives of Meredith-Worley Inc. admitted to U.S. District Court Judge Judith Keep that they told the government that employees were receiving higher wages than the workers actually were paid. Ralph Charles Meredith, 66, of Vista; Herman Worley, 70, of Monterey, and ex-foreman Tommy Lee Franklin, 54, of Oceanside, will be sentenced May 6. Assistant U.S. Atty. Eve Bermingham said 86 employees of the firm were shortchanged $399,665 in wages by the company on the $1.7-million project. The company’s attorney, however, estimated the wage shortfall at $50,000.