Migrant Describes Attack Outside Market

A migrant worker testified Monday that, because he does not speak English, he could not understand why two Carlsbad grocery workers beat him, handcuffed him and covered his head with a paper bag bearing a cross-eyed clown face.

Speaking through a court interpreter, Candido Gayosso Salas said that Randy Ryberg and William Zimmerman used duct tape to fasten the grocery bag--decorated with a caricature face featuring tiny ears and a toothy grin--on his head.

Also scrawled across the top of the sack, which included a peephole through which Gayosso could look, was the phrase No Mas Aqui --ungrammatical Spanish for “Don’t Come Back.” (Literally, the phrase means no more here .)

Gayosso, 26, was among eight people--police, migrants and store workers--who testified on the opening day of the preliminary hearing before Vista Municipal Judge Michael Burley.

The proceedings are expected to conclude today with the testimony of two other migrant witnesses, after which Burley will decide whether to order the two men to stand trial in Superior Court, said Deputy Dist. Atty. George McFetridge.

Ryberg, 37, a baker at the Country Store on El Camino Real, and Zimmerman, a meat cutter there, have been charged with felony false imprisonment by violence and a misdemeanor civil rights violation in connection with the Jan. 3 incident outside the rural market.

Court testimony from several witnesses described how Gayosso was handcuffed to a stair railing for more than two hours in what authorities have called an apparent ploy to scare off the scores of migrant workers who congregate daily outside the market to solicit work.

The alleged abduction has stirred strong feelings throughout North County, where thousands of homeless migrant workers from Mexico and Central America seek day labor, sometimes coming into conflict with businesses and residents of expansive new housing projects.

The FBI is investigating the case, which has also caught the attention of Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Recently, more than 200 demonstrators picketed the store, known by migrant workers for the 12-foot fiberglass rooster perched on its roof.

Gayosso, a small, slender man dressed in blue jeans and a bright cotton shirt, testified that he was grabbed by Ryberg, a burly 6-foot-6, at about 7:45 a.m. and dragged several yards to the back of the store.

When Ryberg called for help, Zimmerman, whom Gayosso continually referred to in court as “the butcher,” emerged from the store, Gayosso said.

Zimmerman, who operates the independent Truman’s Meats inside the market, then forced Gayosso face-down onto the parking lot, placing his foot on the man’s back while Ryberg chased off two migrant workers who had come to help Gayosso, according to the testimony.

In his hourlong testimony, Gayosso described the fear and humiliation of being held by two men who did not speak his language.

“I was struggling to get away because I knew I hadn’t done anything,” he said softly, nervously knocking his legs together as he sat in the witness box. “They were talking English, so I didn’t understand. The only Spanish they said was ‘ No mas aqui. ‘ “

Gayosso also said that store owner Rick Ryberg grabbed his head and hit him twice while he was handcuffed to the stairway railing. Rick Ryberg was cleared of wrongdoing by the San Diego County district attorney’s office last month.

Key testimony was offered in the hearing by Carlsbad Police Officer William Rowland, who described how he found Gayosso standing, bound, in a nearby field.

Along with the bag, he also showed the silvery duct tape found on Gayosso, as well as two rolls of the tape found inside the store.

Kathryn Dann, a deli manager at the Country Store, described how Randy Ryberg had yelled several times at about a dozen men, ordering them to leave the property.

“After three or four times telling them to leave, he went outside,” she said.

Ruben Casas, a U.S. Border Patrol agent, said that while on routine patrol behind the store, he found Gayosso handcuffed to the railing. He said he asked the man what had happened.

“Before he could answer, someone inside the store said it had all been taken care of already,” Casas said. The agent testified that he assumed someone had called Carlsbad police, so he left the scene.

But not before asking one more question.

“I asked if the handcuffed man had been shoplifting,” Casas said. “And the voice in the store said, ‘Yeah, it’s all been taken care of.’ ”