Sacto 9-1-1: Tomato king Salyer loses bid to toss out evidence obtained by FBI

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February 8, 2011

Tomato king Salyer loses bid to toss out evidence obtained by FBI

By Denny Walsh
dwalsh@sacbee.com

Tomato king Frederick Scott Salyer's bid to keep a significant portion of the government's evidence from being used against him has been rejected by a Sacramento federal judge.

U. S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton ruled that Salyer has no standing to challenge warrantless searches of property that then belonged to his now-defunct company, SK Foods LP.

The defense motion to suppress the fruits of the searches struck at the heart of the high-profile prosecution. Salyer's lead defense lawyer, Malcolm Segal, claimed the case rests on a mountain of documents obtained without court order from Anthony Ray Manuel who, as a vice president of SK Foods, simply picked up the material, walked out and turned it over to the FBI.

"The government's case is based entirely on clear and substantial violations of the Fourth Amendment (which bars searches and seizures without warrants) by the FBI agent," Segal alleged in a motion to suppress filed in July.

Not so, said Karlton in a two-page order issued Monday.

The judge said he "agrees with the government that the defendant lacks standing relative to the searches," because the locations from which the corporate documents were taken were not under the exclusive control of Salyer.

"For that reason, the defendant's motion to suppress is denied," Karlton concluded.

The ruling is a critical blow to the defense of the case against the 54-year-old agribusiness mogul, whose tomato-products empire collapsed amid a years-long federal probe that resulted in charges of racketeering, bribery, obstruction of justice and antitrust violations that could send Salyer to prison for life.

Call The Bee's Denny Walsh, (916) 321-1189.

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Q: What happened with the case regarding Marc McCormick? He was accused of videotaping a woman in her home and was arrested. He lives in my neighborhood and I see him all the time. Were charges dropped?

A: According to Sacramento Superior Court online records, misdemeanor charges have been filed against Mark William McCormick, alleging that he used a camcorder or other instrument to view an individual in a place where there was an expectation of privacy, trespassing and peeping.

His next court date is June 4.

According to Sacramento police logs, McCormick, 40, was arrested March 8 after the victim reported that a friend had entered her home without her knowledge to secretly videotape her.

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