BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — A Brooklyn restaurant owner was sentenced to a year in jail Wednesday for failing to pay his employees more than $17,000 in back wages, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said.
Earl Davis, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, employed at least 15 people at Edna’s Soul Food in Brownsville from October 2013 to July 2014, according to officials.
The 26-year-old told workers he would pay them up to $10 an hour for their services in positions including assistant manager, servers, fry cooks and cashiers.
Instead, officials said the employees received checks that bounced or they were given cash without pay stubs. Davis also confiscated their tips, took money from the register on a daily basis and refused to pay overtime, according to the DA’s Office.
The workers were owed pay for up to two months of work, the DA's office said. Davis regularly argued with his employees and physically attacked or fired those who asked for their wages, officials said.
He also promised employees that he planned to open more restaurants and if they continued to work for them, he would pay the money owed as well as give them promotions and raises.
“This defendant brazenly stole the hard-earned money of his victims,” Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson said in a statement.
The restaurant at 2258 Atlantic Ave. closed after the 2014 investigation and the employees are set to receive their back wages, according to the DA’s office.
Davis and the three companies he used to operate Edna’s pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted scheme to defraud. His business partner and the restaurant’s vice president, Patrick Tassy, was indicted in January and is due back in court on May 13.
