Rights Advocates Seek Probe of Store

Migrant advocates, alleging that tension and confrontations are continuing at the Country Store market in Carlsbad, say they will ask the FBI, the district attorney and other organizations to investigate purported civil rights violations there.

The activists cite two incidents in recent days, one in which a store worker allegedly threatened and grabbed a migrant laborer in the presence of two Carlsbad police officers early Saturday.

In a second incident Tuesday morning, police were called to the rural market on El Camino Real after store employee Randy Ryberg refused to admit three migrants or allow them to use two public telephones outside the store, authorities said.

Two of the laborers--Juan Jorge Mendoza-Flores, 31, and Pedro Martinez-Perez, 29--had testified against Ryberg during preliminary hearings in Vista Municipal Court several days before, police said.

Ryberg and William E. Zimmerman, a self-employed meat cutter at the store, are charged with felony false imprisonment in the alleged January abduction of a 26-year-old undocumented alien outside the market.

Candido Gayosso Salas was allegedly handcuffed for several hours before he was bound with duct tape and released with a paper bag fastened over his head. On the bag was written a clown’s face and a Spanish phrase, No Mas Aqui , which roughly means “Don’t come back,” officers said. A jury trial in the case is expected to begin sometime this spring in Superior Court.

Migrant advocates say the recent incidents signal growing tension between some elements of the North County community and homeless migrant laborers from Mexico and Central America.

“This is all part of a dangerous climate that is hanging over the North County,” said the Rev. Rafael Martinez, executive director of the North County Chaplaincy, a migrant advocacy group based in Encinitas.

“But we as Hispanics are also members of this community. We are not going to run away. And we’re not going to tolerate people being abused because they’re poor. We’re all protected by the Constitution.”

In Saturday’s incident, Martinez said, he had stopped his car to visit with half a dozen migrant workers who were drinking beer near the store to celebrate a birthday, when two large men he believes were Randy Ryberg and his brother, Rick--owner of the Country Store--accosted the group at about 9:30 a.m.

The men screamed obscenities, ordering the migrants to leave the property. Then they called police from their car phone, Martinez said.

A short time later, as two Carlsbad police officers looked on, one of the men grabbed and shook a migrant worker, Martinez said, threatening the workers if they dared try to use the public telephones outside the store, which migrants refer to as “La Gallina,” Spanish for chicken, because of the large fiberglass rooster perched on the roof.

“He grabbed the worker right in front of the police officers,” Martinez said. “The men told the workers that, if any of them dared to come back to the store to use the telephone, they would see what would happen to them.

“The least thing a police officer should say is tell the men not to make any threats in front of them. But neither of these officers did anything.”

On Thursday, Martinez met with Carlsbad police to register his complaint. He said he also plans to file a written report of the incident with both the FBI and the county commission on human rights.

“My concern is that these guys, in spite of all that has happened with the criminal charges, are continuing to attack and harass these people in the presence of police officers,” he said. “We want to make it clear to both the police and the district attorney’s office that we are going to report these crimes. They can no longer say that these crimes are going unreported.”

In the past, authorities have said that migrant workers have been reluctant to report such crimes because they feared deportation.

Carlsbad Police Capt. Gene Kellogg acknowledged Thursday that his officers had been at the Country Store on Saturday morning. But he said he had not yet talked with them about what happened. He said the department will look into the incident as well as the conduct of the officers.

“Rev. Martinez has described the two men involved,” he said. “He doesn’t know if they’re the Ryberg brothers, nor do I. But we’ll find out. And we’ll also talk to our officers about their response.”

Randy Ryberg said Thursday that he and his brother showed up at the store Saturday only after police arrived.

“The police came because there were 15 or 20 drunk migrants here,” he said. “We wanted to see what was going on. But hey, I don’t even know who this Reverend Martinez is. We didn’t have anything to do with it.”

Ryberg also denied that the Country Store has barred workers from the market or from using public telephones there. “Every one of those people can come into the store,” he said. “They’re all brothers.”

However, Carlsbad police said that Randy Ryberg called them to the Country Store on Tuesday morning on a trespass complaint. “He wanted several of the migrants off the property,” Lt. Don Lewis said.

“But he was told by officers that he couldn’t prevent the public from using the telephones or the parking lot,” he said. “In some cases, that’s the only phones the migrants have to use for miles.”

Lewis said two of the three workers Ryberg called to complain about had recently testified against Ryberg in Vista court. One of the men told officers that Ryberg had earlier grabbed him and pulled him away while he spoke on the phone outside the store, police said. No charges were filed in Tuesday’s incident.

Rickhard Borg, an attorney who represents the Country Store, said the three migrants had caused trouble at the store in the past. “These men have previous theft charges, I’m led to believe,” he said. “When people commit crimes at the store, we ask them not to come back.”

The migrants could not be reached for comment about the theft claim.

An attorney for a migrant legal aid organization said Thursday that the group is investigating whether to take legal action regarding the reported denial of the use of public phones to the migrants and possible harassment of witnesses in the court case.

“If you have a telephone in your parking lot, you’re opening it up to public use; you can’t decide who has access,” said Claudia Smith, counsel for California Rural Legal Assistance in Oceanside.

Smith also noted that the post office operates a counter in the Country Store several hours a day.

“There’s some serious questions here. There are a number of legal avenues, including a possible injunction, if it’s found that they’re denying access to the public phones or a U. S. post office to anyone, regardless of who they are.”

Ken Boyd, a spokesman for the U. S. Postal Service in San Diego, said the agency routinely contracts with businesses such as convenience stores to open counters in areas where there are few post offices.

“But the Postal Service doesn’t have the right to regulate people on private property just because there’s a postal store inside,” he said. “It’s a legal issue. And it concerns us enough to consult with our counsel to see if we want to pull our counter from that store.”

Smith said she talked with attorney Borg on Thursday to discuss the climate at the Country Store and any possible new lawsuits.

“He said the Rybergs wanted to make peace, not war,” she said. “Well, if that’s the case, they’ve sure got a funny way of showing it.”