Fresno restaurateur Bobby Salazar suing former employees’ lawyer in car bombing controversy
Restaurant owner Bobby Salazar is suing a Fresno lawyer for alleged defamation after the attorney suggested that Salazar may have been involved in firebombing a former restaurant worker’s car.
Salazar alleges in the lawsuit, filed Sept. 8 in Fresno County Superior Court, that sales at his small chain of six Mexican restaurants and of his salsa products have dropped “significantly” as a result of statements made by attorney Brian Whelan.
Whelan represents two former employees of Salazar’s restaurants who have sued the company alleging wrongful termination and wage and hour violations. Both cases are still pending.
At issue is what happened after the lawsuits were filed. Whelan issued a press release on June 28 to announce he was organizing a GoFundMe campaign on behalf of his client Hilda Lopez, whose family’s three cars were destroyed by a suspicious fire.
In the press release, Whelan states that Salazar was served with Lopez’s legal complaint on June 22.
“Less than nine hours later, the three cars owned by Ms. Lopez and her family were blown-up in front of their house in the middle of the night,” Whelan wrote.
The press release went on to say that this was not the first time “fire-related crimes tied to legal action against Mr. Salazar” have happened.
Whelan said last May, someone firebombed the car of another Bobby Salazar’s employee who “exposed (an alleged) pay-for-testimony scheme organized by Mr. Salazar in an attempt to tamper with witnesses in a separate wrongful termination lawsuit.”
Two months later, someone tried to firebomb Whelan’s office in northeast Fresno. So far, no arrests have been made.
Salazar has strongly denied any involvement in the fires.
“Plaintiffs do not know whether Ms. Lopez’s car was car-bombed, whether another former employee’s car was car-bombed, or whether Mr. Whelan’s office received a “Molotov cocktail,” because Plaintiffs had no involvement with those events,” the lawsuit states. “The statements made by Mr. Whelan and Whelan Law in connection with the Press Release were statements of fact. Those statements of fact were false and were designed to cause injury to Plaintiffs, and, in fact, did cause injury.”
Salazar, who is being represented by the Beverly Hill’s law firm, One LLP, is seeking financial damages, including punitive damages to be proven at trial.
Calls to Salazar and Whelan were not returned Friday afternoon.
This story was originally published September 17, 2021 at 4:19 PM.
