Immigrant freed by ICE named in suit over back pay
A local businessman who was detained for more than five months by U.S. immigration officials is a partner in companies that owe former employees back pay, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.
Luis Martinez is among five defendants named in the suit — along with Sergio Raymundo, William I. Cote, Mauro Chavez and Jose Anaya — who are identified as owning, operating or controlling Lalo Drywall Inc. and Hudson Meridian Construction Group.
The plaintiffs are former employees Franklin Geovanny Chillogallo Rodriguez, Freddy Jesus Soriano Sanchez, Himmer Abel Oliveros Martinez, Jose Baudilio Zuniga Alvarenga, Kevin Dubon and Klever Sinchi Quizhpi. The suit says they worked for the companies between 2016 and February, 2019.
“At all times relevant to this complaint, plaintiffs worked for defendants in excess of 40 hours per week, without appropriate minimum wage and overtime compensation for the hours that they worked,” the suit states.
“Rather, defendants failed to maintain accurate record keeping of the hours worked and failed to pay plaintiffs appropriately for any hours worked, either at the straight rate of pay or for any additional overtime premium.”
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York City in late May — while Martinez was in federal custody — says the lack of pay violates the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and New York state labor laws.
The suit does not seek specific compensation, though it says: “Defendants are liable to each plaintiff in the amount of $5,000, together with costs and attorneys’ fees.”
Long Island-based attorney Richard Howard, who is representing the defendants, said he had not finished reviewing the case, but added: “My [response] comes from ‘Porgy and Bess’ — it ain’t necessarily so.”
Howard also said that, based on information he has gathered so far, Lola Drywall and Hudson Meridian Construction do not appear to be connected.
He also said he believes the case will be resolved, but he did not say whether that meant reaching a settlement. Martinez did not immediately respond to a message left for him Tuesday at the Lalo office in New Paltz.
Raymundo called the Freeman Tuesday afternoon and said he is not involved with either Lalo or Meridian and doesn’t know why he’s named in the lawsuit. Raymundo, however, pleaded guilty in a 2016 case involving Lalo not making payments to the state unemployment system.
Martinez — a Mexican immigrant who owns Lalo and also operates La Charla, a restaurant at 127 Main St. in the village — was arrested in his driveway on Jan. 9 and placed in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at the Orange County Correctional Facility, where he remained until his release in mid-June.
In a 20-page ruling that dismissed the immigration case against Martinez, state Supreme Court Justice Nelson S. Róman wrote: “No relief short of [Martinez’s] release will remedy [t]his wrong. The Constitution does not permit the United States government to target people on the streets, arrest them without serving any papers, deny them meaningful due process, and detain them for arbitrary or indefinite periods of time while they engage in [f]ishing expeditions to justify the arrests.”
Martinez, who is married and three children, is “home with his family,” town of New Paltz Councilman Daniel Torres said late last month in discussing Martinez’s release.
The new lawsuit comes three years after Raymundo and Lalo Drywall Inc. pleaded guilty in state Supreme Court in Manhattan to failing to pay into the New York state unemployment system. Raymundo and Lalo were ordered to make $793,509.60 in restitution and pay $83,143.76 in unemployment contributions to the state Department of Labor’s Unemployment Insurance Division, according to a statement issued at the time by thenNew York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and New York City Department of Investigation Commissioner Mark G. Peters.
“Raymundo and Lalo Drywall Inc. cheated eight workers at a Harlem housing project out of approximately $800,000 in wages during a 17-month period, and attempted to conceal the underpayments by signing false checks drawn on the company’s account indicating that employees on the job were paid properly under the law,” the statement from Schneiderman and Peters said. “However, those checks were never actually given to the workers.”