Laborers Cite Somis Ranch Abuse : Agriculture: The sentencing hearing for owner Edwin M. Ives begins in federal court. His attorneys cross-examine workers.

Mexican laborers at the locked, guarded Somis Ranch worked in sweatshop conditions for paltry wages with little rest and frequent abuse, according to statements released by federal prosecutors at a sentencing hearing Monday for ranch owner Edwin M. Ives.

Attorneys for Ives and his ranch supervisors began cross-examining the 18 farm workers who made the statements, marking the first time the millionaire ranch owner has been confronted in open court by those who accused him 2 1/2 years ago of enslaving them.

Slavery and extortion charges were dropped in May after Ives, 55, of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to charges of maintaining false records, harboring and transporting illegal immigrants and paying sub-minimum wages.

As part of his prearranged plea, Ives agreed to pay $1.5 million in back wages, the stiffest fine ever in a U. S. immigration case. His firm, Griffith-Ives Co., pleaded guilty to corporate racketeering, the federal government’s first organized crime conviction in a civil rights case.

Unlike most sentencing hearings, which often are swift and feature few or no witnesses, the hearing before U. S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall at the federal courthouse in Los Angeles is expected to last for several days.

Defense attorneys are scheduled to cross-examine 17 other farm workers who signed sworn statements--as well as five others who later came forward--before the hearing ends. All were brought from Mexico to Los Angeles for the proceedings.

The maximum sentence for Ives on all charges could be up to 16 years in federal prison, but Marshall could impose a lesser term or probation.

The hearing began slowly, with court translators interpreting between Ives’ attorney, Stephen Sadowsky, and Delfino Calderon Olvera, the first of the Spanish-speaking ranch workers to testify.

Calderon testified that his cousin told him that the ranch would be a good place to earn money.

“And you made good money at the Somis ranch, isn’t that correct?” Sadowsky asked.

“No,” Calderon replied.

Calderon’s testimony continued haltingly into the afternoon, as Sadowsky sought to prove that conditions and pay at Ives’ ranch were better than Calderon claimed in his sworn statement.

Under questioning by Assistant U. S. Atty. Carol Gillam, Calderon testified that he worked for six weeks with little or no pay. His first paycheck was for $1 after money was taken out for rent and for the smuggler, or coyote, who helped him enter the United States and come to the ranch, he said.

Calderon testified that he worked hard, especially under pressure from foreman Rony Havive, who was in the courtroom.

Havive would yell at the workers and “treated them like slaves,” Calderon testified under cross-examination by Janet Levine, attorney for Havive.

In statements, other workers said they arrived already in debt, owing about $65 for fake immigration papers and $325 or more for the services of Mauro Casares, the man who smuggled them to the ranch from rural Mexico. Casares pleaded guilty to various charges and was sentenced last month to 18 months in federal prison.

Even once out of debt, they were forced to pay inflated prices at the ranch’s company store for everything from work tools ($20 for flower clippers) and food to blankets and cooking pots.

Workers said in statements that they were forced to pay $2 or $4 for video movies played at the ranch, some pornographic, even if they did not watch them. And some complained that they were charged $5 for chicken that would have cost $2.40 outside the ranch.

Many of the workers complained in their statements of verbal and physical abuse by the foremen.

“While we worked, Rony would pinch us and constantly yell at us, telling us to work more and faster,” said Juan Cruz Mendez.

Cruz said that when he needed medicine because his arm hurt and was slowing him down, Havive charged him $8 for something to rub on it.

“Once while I was working in the greenhouse, I accidentally allowed a eucalyptus branch to fall to one side, and Rony pulled my ear and yelled at me,” he said in his statement.

Working conditions were grim, according to the statements, which say the workers spent long hours locked in greenhouses with irritating pesticides and poor or no protective gear.

“My God, the heat in the greenhouse,” said a statement by worker Esteban Perez Alavez. “There was no ventilation. We worked with liquids, acids. Our throats hurt, we got headaches. We told (foreman) David Pinzon, but he just said, ‘Here, there’s no medicine.’ I suffered a lot.”

Crammed six or eight to a room, earning sometimes only $5 or $10 a week while paying debts, and forbidden to leave until their debts were cleared, the flower workers tried in June, 1988, to force Ives and the foremen to pay them better, the statements said.

“We stopped working and had a strike because we were not making much money,” said Tomas Alavez Cruz in his statement. “The owner of the ranch, Ives, then came to talk to us and said that we would make no money if we didn’t work and said, ‘I have enough money to live for another 100 years.’ ”

A statement by Fernando Maldonado Garcia said, “It was a very ugly experience at the Somis Ranch. I felt like a prisoner. . . .”

Testimony is expected to continue Wednesday before the hearings are suspended until after Jan. 1.