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WEST BOUNTIFUL — The owner of a general contracting company accused of labor trafficking is arguing that the evidence collected against him and his partners should be thrown out, claiming the state's lead investigator made false statements and left out important facts in order to obtain search warrants.
Rudy Lars Larsen, 35, of Bountiful, the founder of Rubicon Contracting LLC, is facing nine felony charges of aggravated human trafficking, engaging in a pattern of unlawful activity and money laundering.
Larsen and six other executive members at Rubicon are accused of recruiting about 150 people from Mexico to work for the company using H-2B visas. But once in Utah, charging documents allege the victims were paid very little, forced to live in deplorable housing provided by Rubicon while also being forced to pay rent, and were threatened with deportation.
An attorney representing the business has called the allegations "outrageous and inflammatory."
On Wednesday, Larsen and his attorney filed a motion in 3rd District Court requesting that the presiding judge "void the search warrants in this case, order the suppression and return of all evidence and assets seized pursuant to those warrants and hold an evidentiary hearing," also known as a "Franks hearing." A Franks hearing, named after a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a case out of Delaware, is used when one side believes search warrants served during an investigation that were used to collect evidence contain false statements or significant omissions and the warrants were approved by a judge based on inaccurate information.
The motion filed Wednesday in the Rubicon case alleges "the state's lead investigator made these false statements and omissions knowingly and intentionally, or at least with a reckless disregard of the truth."
A total of 10 search warrants were served during the investigation, the motion says.
The defense contends the warrants falsely state Rubicon withheld immigration documents from seven employees, not allowing them to travel back and forth from Mexico.
"None of this is true. To depart the United States, all the H-2B workers needed was a passport," the motion states.
Furthermore, the motion alleges the workers never actually told the state's investigator that Rubicon withheld their visa documents, "and for good reason: because there is no evidence that Rubicon actually withheld H-2B workers' documents."
The motion further notes the state's investigator was able to take a picture of one of the alleged victim's passports when he asked for it. "This was only possible because, obviously, the passport was in (the employee's) possession during the interview," court documents state.
As for the notion that the employees were threatened with deportation, the defense argues in its motion that the state failed to mention Rubicon "was legally mandated" to inform the Department of Labor when workers violated their H-2B visas. One employee was allegedly told if they did not want to renew their contract with Rubicon, they would be returned home at Rubicon's expense, the motion states.
The motion also contends that claims of workers being forced to live in housing provided by Rubicon are false.
"They gave us a choice of living in a house that they were going to provide, or we could look for our own house to rent, but if we chose the latter, we had to find our own transport, so we ended up living in their houses," one of the seven alleged victims told investigators, according to the motion.
"Once the court sets aside these misstatements and corrects the state's omissions, (the state can) no longer demonstrate probable cause of human trafficking for labor, nor of benefitting from human trafficking for labor. A Franks hearing is therefore warranted, and the court should 'void' the warrants, suppress any evidence obtained as a result of those warrants, and order the return of all property seized," the defense motion states.
A preliminary hearing for criminal charges is scheduled to begin in May.
