California IN BRIEF : SAN JOSE : Contractor Charged in Slaying Plot

A Monterey painting contractor, under investigation by labor officials for failure to pay prevailing wages to employees, was charged with attempting to hire someone to kill a potential witness against him in the wage dispute. Dennis Lynn Piert, 48, was ordered held without bail by U.S. Magistrate Patricia Trumbull on a charge of obstruction of justice. Piert allegedly asked an employee at his paint shop near Ft. Ord to find someone who would kill Joseph Mathews, another employee of the painting concern, according to FBI spokeswoman Barbara Madden. Mathews purportedly was preparing to testify in a Labor Department investigation of Piert’s alleged underpayment of seven workers by an estimated $103,000.