Eight years ago, restaurant worker Jose Higareda filed a wage complaint against the Caliente Cantina restaurant in San Pedro, telling state investigators he was not paid for more than 100 hours of work.
The hearing officer, acting on behalf of the state’s labor commissioner, found that the restaurant failed to pay the three workers, committing violations of the state labor code that are commonly known as wage theft, said Paola Laverde, spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Industrial Relations. “The longer this judgment is left unpaid, the more your company will owe,” wrote the nonprofit group, which is retained byThe letters were addressed to Cantina Investments LLC, dba Caliente Cantina, c/o Danielle Sandoval.
Sandoval told The Times on Friday that she was the owner of Caliente Cantina. On Monday, she said she was a managing partner. She would not clarify her role with Cantina Investments LLC, saying the company has been dissolved — and that she is now conferring with her lawyer.State business records from 2014 identify Sandoval as one of two organizers of Cantina Investments LLC, the company listed as the sole defendant in the four wage cases.
Sandoval would not define the relationship between Cantina Investments and her restaurant. In their filings, state labor officials said Cantina Investments LLC was doing business as Caliente Cantina. A state business filing from 2014 also lists Sandoval as the agent for Cantina Investments, which would have made her the company’s contact for legal correspondence. The document said the company had more than one manager but did not identify them.