Tormentor of Migrant Worker Is Sentenced : Justice: The brother of a Carlsbad store owner is given a four-month work sentence for illegal imprisoning one of the migrant workers who gathered at the store.

A worker whose job was “to keep the Mexicans away” from the Country Store in Carlsbad apologized to a Vista judge Wednesday before being sentenced to four months in a county work program for unlawfully imprisoning a migrant laborer outside the rural market in January.

Randy Ryberg also said he would like to put behind him the incident in which he tied up and fastened a paper bag over the head of a 27-year-old worker less than half his size--a case that has come to symbolize the tensions between North County businessmen and the growing migrant population.

“Your Honor, I’m terribly sorry I did this to Mr. Candido,” Ryberg said contritely, turning to face Candido Gayosso Salas, who sat in the front row of the Vista Superior courtroom. “I meant no harm to him. And I would like to get on with my life.”

Superior Court Judge Charles Hayes, however, seemed little moved by the apology.

“While Mr. Ryberg has had no previous contact with the law, he was involved in a course of conduct that can only be described as callous, uncivilized and demeaning to another individual,” Hayes told the courtroom.

“It was outrageous, and I think he recognizes that.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. George McFetridge had asked that Ryberg be fined $1,000 and sentenced to three years’ probation, including six months in a county work furlough facility, where he would be required to report to a San Diego jail nights and weekends.

Lynn Behymer, Ryberg’s attorney, argued that his client had already suffered the indignation of press coverage of the case and should be given only 30 days in the county program and be required to perform 100 hours of community work.

Hayes, however, ruled that Ryberg deserved to spend more time behind bars. He sentenced the 36-year-old Texas native to the three years’ probation, including four months in the work program. He also fined him $500 and ordered him to complete 160 hours of community service work.

“I think four months in the program is reasonable and fits the crime,” he said. “I hope it’s a deterrent for others who might do the same thing. It’s something this court should consider, and I am considering.”

Ryberg could have been sentenced to a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

On the morning of Jan. 3, Ryberg and William Zimmerman, a meat cutter at the Country Store, grabbed Gayosso as he solicited day labor in the parking lot outside the store.

In court testimony, the pair claimed they were making a legal citizen’s arrest because Gayosso had refused to leave the property. For two hours, they left him handcuffed him to a railing in the back of the store.

When they released Gayosso, Ryberg bound Gayosso’s arms and legs with duct tape and fastened a paper bag over his head on which was scrawled a clown’s face and the phrase “ No Mas Aqui ,” or No More Here.

A jury trial in June cleared Zimmerman of all charges. Ryberg was convicted of misdemeanor false imprisonment.

Before the sentencing, Gayosso told the judge through a court interpreter that he, too, wishes to put the incident behind him.

“It has affected me a lot,” he said in response to McFetridge’s questioning. “Not only psychologically, but every day I’m reminded of it, and I’m getting sick and tired of it.”

Outside the courtroom, Gayosso said he has faced ridicule from other migrant workers over the case. “And it’s not only them,” he said.

“Everywhere I go, people ask me about it. And the newspapers write about it. So, when you look at a paper, you feel bad.”

He said he was not pleased by the sentence.

“I don’t think it’s fair, but there’s nothing I can do,” said Gayosso, who stands just over 5 feet tall. “I want to punish him so that he won’t do any more acts of violence like he did to me.”

He said he plans to stay in the area a short time longer and then may return to his home in central Mexico.

Ryberg, who was clad in a dress shirt and black denim pants, refused to talk with reporters. But he told probation officers in a sentencing report released Wednesday that he is the victim in the case.

He said in the 12-page report that he “feels sorry for all the Mexicans” who are looking for work and said it is “too bad that they are away from their families.”

But Ryberg, who has since left his job at the store owned by his older brother, also told probation officers he began work there six months before the incident “to keep the Mexicans away.” He said his brother has lost $20,000 to break-ins and shoplifting.

After warning Gayosso to leave the property, he began a legal citizen’s arrest that got “blown out of hand,” becoming an incident that “the press carried . . . too far,” he said.

Behymer called the incident at the Country Store “a tragedy of great proportions.”

“He walked into a war zone between his brother and the people outside the store, and perhaps he didn’t have the maturity to know how to act,” he told the judge.

Then, referring to the 6-foot-6 Ryberg, who is married and has two children, he said: “He’s a big person, there’s no doubt about that. What he did was wrong, and he’s admitted that. He’s sorry for what he did.”

In the probation report, Ryberg told officers that he feels the adverse publicity in the case has stymied his efforts to land a food and beverage manger’s job at a local hotel.

Behymer told the judge Wednesday he had considered asking the court to assign his client to community work, “but, because of all the publicity, I know that wouldn’t work.”

Although he promised the judge Ryberg would not repeat his conduct, he said there are still tensions between the North County business community and migrant laborers that this case would not resolve.

“There are still going to be problems,” he said. “And it has been my job to keep my client from becoming the cause celebre of this running battle.”