by Thomas MacMillan | Dec 16, 2011 6:28 pm

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Shortly after Rob LaRock started working as a line cook at the Pic-Nic restaurant on Chapel Street, John David Coleates started telling him: “I’m not your boss, I’m your friend.”

“I honestly believed that,” LaRock (pictured) said, until Coleates and Jeremiah Kobelka—another Pic-Nic owner—disappeared, leaving dozens of employees like him with bounced checks and IOUs.

LaRock shared his experience through a megaphone Friday at noon as former Pic-Nic workers rallied in front of the shuttered restaurant at 954 Chapel St. with activists from the New Haven Workers Association. It’s the second such rally since the eatery closed up shop in November after being open just two weeks. Read WTNH’s coverage of the first rally here.

Workers said they’re looking into filing a civil suit against Coleates and Kobelka, whom they called serial “con artists” who have “scammed” other workers in similar bait-and-switch schemes in other towns. They said the latest episode fits a pattern of setting up sham businesses then skipping town with investors’ money, before workers are paid.

In this case, the landlord at Pic-Nic told WTNH that the men defrauded him of $25,000.

Coleates and Kobelka could not be reached for comment. A message left on Kobelka’s phone Friday afternoon was not returned.

A background check provided by the workers found Coleates has a history of bankruptcies, liens, and debt lawsuits in Las Vegas, Hawaii and Pennsylvania, including a civil judgement in Hawaii finding that Coleates owed $4.1 million to a company called the Dauer Entertainment Group. Coleates was also convicted on a 2001 federal bank fraud felony charge in New York state, according to the background check. Read the full report here.

Police spokesman Officer Dave Hartman said police have made out three separate reports on the workers’ complaints, which have been submitted to investigative services’ fraud unit. Read one of those reports here. It remains to be seen whether the situation will become a criminal case or if it will be a civil matter to be pursued by the workers.

“It’s just a matter of whether or not this has enough teeth to pursue criminally,” Hartman said. “And there’s nothing to say it wouldn’t.”

At the rally on Friday, former employees spoke about how friendly Coleates and Kobelka had been, how they had seemed so trustworthy.

Joel Vetsch (pictured), who was hired as a server, said the first workers joined in September and went through weeks of training and delays. Some of them pitched in with construction labor to get the place ready for business, Vetsch said.

By November, workers discovered that paychecks they got from Coleates and Kobelka had bounced, Vetsch said. Others hadn’t received payment in any form, he said. By mid-November, the restaurant was closed.

On Dec. 2, Coleates and Kobelka held a staff meeting and promised to straighten everything out, Vetsch said. That was the last workers saw of them.

“They made it seem like we’d all be taken care of,” said James Hutton. He said he was hired as a food prep cook and server, and also pitched in with construction. “I’m owed about three grand and I haven’t seen a dime of it.”

Mike Matteo (pictured), a plumber from North Haven, said he has a signed contract with Coleates and Kobelka that they never honored. He’s owed $3,100 for work he did in the restaurant, he said. Coleates and Kobelka recently wired him $250 with a note that said “Good Faith” but haven’t answered his phone calls,” Matteo said.

Shane Kral (pictured) said he had to give up his apartment and move back in with his parents because he was counting on money from Pic-Nic. Carlyn Soter, a waiter, said she’s had to go down to half-time at her program at University of New Haven.

John Lugo of the New Haven Workers Association said he’s talking with law students at Yale about taking the case on as a civil complaint.

New Haven State Rep. Roland Lemar attended the rally and listened as workers spoke. He said he thinks Coleates and Kobelka are guilty of a “systematic defrauding of our community.” He said he will “marshal local, state, and federal resources” and “work with officials to start a civil proceedings” against the pair.

Lugo also suggested that someone should think about opening a restaurant at the abandoned Pic-Nic spot. The space is ready to go and the workers are too, he said.

In the meantime, workers are still hoping to get their back wages.

But not Co-op High student Kaci Piscatelli (pictured), who said working at Pic-Nic was her first job ever. She said she cares less about the money than about the fate of Coleates and Kobelka, who she said she thought were her friends. “I want them in prison.”

Marco Polo Pressured

After Friday’s rally at Pic-Nic, workers marched to the Marco Polo pizzeria on Crown Street for another protest. They were joined by Joel Matamoros, who said his 18-year-old son Jonathan Matamoros worked at the restaurant for three days—Dec. 9, 10, and 11—and then quit when he was told he wouldn’t be paid for his training time.

State law requires payment of all employees, defined as “any person suffered or permitted to work by an employer.”

At the restaurant, Lugo delivered a letter demanding payment of $214.50 in unpaid wages to Matamoros for 26 hours of work at the $8.25 minimum wage.

The man who received the letter (pictured above) identified himself as an owner but declined to give his name. He acknowledged that the restaurant had not paid Matamoros. “There was no payment. He was training.”

Protestors marched in front of the restaurant for a brief time. Megan Fountain of the New Haven Workers Association said an employee later came out, gave Joel Matamoros a form to fill out, and promised to have a check for his son on Saturday morning.