Wages recovered for coastside farmworker couple 

“I had no money, no work, I had nothing. I had my partner with me and I couldn’t give her anything,” Reyes said through a translator. “She went back to Mexico — I stayed here alone. My daughter helped me to have food to eat.” 

After prosecution from the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, Kyle Kwong — who hired Reyes to work at Earthvine Grower and was signing his checks — pleaded no contest to misdemeanor wage theft, on the condition that Ofelia and Gabriel be promptly reimbursed the nearly $12,000 they were owed. 

Getting the money he worked for was a relief, Reyes said. 

“Thanks to God, I have work now and feel happy and content,” he said. “I’m very grateful to the lawyers who helped me [with] what was pending in pay.” 

The case against Kwong — who was originally sentenced to 30 days in county jail but may serve it through the alternative sentencing bureau — is part of the county’s new Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement efforts, funded by a $740,000 grant from the State Labor Commissioner’s Office. 

Deputy District Attorney Kyle Cakebread, who prosecutes cases for the new wage theft unit, said these types of charges take a unique, community-based approach, often working with local nonprofits to find out where wage violations may have occurred and ensuring victims feel comfortable coming forward. 

“These are obviously delicate matters,” he said. “It's more of a collaborative approach from the beginning, because we want to make sure that the victim wants to proceed with the prosecution … We want them fully supportive of the prosecution, and we're backing them through it, and with the goals of ultimately getting their wages.” 

Earlier this year, the DA’s Office charged operators of another coastside farm — Pescadero cannabis operation Miles Ahead Ventures — on 16 counts of wage theft for allegedly withholding more than $200,000 from 30 employees.

From May 1, 2024, to Jan. 24, the men allegedly failed to pay employees — and owe them between $350 to $28,600, individually — and put them in unsanitary living conditions, like tents inside rat-infested greenhouses, according to the DA’s Office. Preliminary hearing is set for Feb. 4. 

Because the Reyes case was only the second set of wage-theft related charges filed from the new investigations unit, it’s too soon to delineate wage theft as a systemic coastside or farm issue, Cakebread said, though he acknowledged similarities between the two filed cases.

“I think it's too soon for me to align on whether or not there is a ‘pattern,’” he said. “These cases are complex investigations that do require a lot of time, so you can draw whatever inferences you want from that, but those were two significant cases that happened to stem from the coast.” 

When working with wage theft victims like Gabriel and Ofelia, Cakebread said his priority is getting a positive resolution as quickly as possible. 

“My goal is to really expedite these cases, because our victims are particularly vulnerable, as was the case here, given that they did not have a lot of money and did have to rely on a lot of local support from the community to — for lack of a better word — survive,” he said. 

Reyes said the experience of struggling with nonpayment of his wages was an experience he wouldn’t wish upon anyone. 

“It’s not right. Imagine if I had little kids — what would I give them to eat?” Reyes said through a translator. “They asked me what sort of punishment I wanted for the man. I said, ‘I don’t wish him any ill, I just want him to pay [me].’ Why would I ask for more?” 

Earthvine Grower, did not respond to request for comment on the case, and Cakebread said it was possible the farm is no longer in operation, though he couldn’t confirm.