Employees of a St. Johns Taqueria Win $200,000 in Wage Theft Lawsuit

Three longtime employees of a St. Johns taqueria have won a $200,000 court judgment after filing suit over unpaid overtime, missed paychecks and their boss’s retaliatory behavior.

In the lawsuit, filed last year, the employees alleged their boss, Verenice Mendoza, missed paychecks and threatened them when they complained. The employees, Ednira Montoya, Jose Flores, and Alejandro Montes, worked for as many as 65 hours a week and were paid between $15 and $19 an hour before being fired in September 2021.

Mendoza ”negatively referenced other workers’ immigration status and warned that those workers should be careful and should not do anything against her,” according to the complaint, filed by lawyers at the Northwest Workers’ Justice Project.

Mendoza never filed a response to the allegations in court, which issued a default judgment against her last week. She owes more than $200,000 in back wages, penalties and legal fees, the court found.

But she did pick up the phone when a WW reporter called the restaurant Tuesday. She said she was struggling to pay her debts after divorcing her husband in 2021. Her husband left her the keys to the restaurant—and a hefty unpaid tax bill. She didn’t have an attorney and said she didn’t know how to find one.

The taqueria, PNW Eats, was known as Rose City Taqueria until it rebranded in 2021. Online reviewers praised its burritos—one called it a “verified ’hood classic.”

It’s not clear if, or when, the three employees will get their money.

“I don’t have 200,000. Not even half,” Mendoza says.