Top stories: Free nectarines; Darius Assemi named in lawsuit; school mascot deadline

Tuesday’s top stories from The Fresno Bee include a Reedley farmer giving away fruit amid a legal battle with a major produce company, a former Granville Homes CFO accusing CEO Darius Assemi of secretly diverting company funds to buy a ranch, and Fresno-area high schools affected by California’s new Native American mascot law.

Here are the top stories of the day:

• Fresno County farmer giving away his fruit amid legal dispute with produce company: Reedley farmer Cesar Mora announced Monday that he will give away his white-flesh nectarines rather than let them rot during a second year of not harvesting amid a breach-of-contract fight with Giumarra Brothers Fruit Co. Mora alleges the company failed to deliver on promises of premium sales and that more than half his fruit was culled at the packing house — far above the industry average of about 15%. He also claims the Monalise nectarine variety is not actually patented as Giumarra represented and that culled fruit was being sold out the back door without compensation. His case heads to trial next month.
• Former Granville Homes exec alleges CEO Assemi skirted court supervision in land buy: Former CFO Ryan Toncheff claims in a wrongful termination lawsuit that Darius Assemi used between $14 million and $16 million of Granville Homes funds to secretly buy the 330-acre Mission Ranch through an LLC, circumventing federal court supervision of the Assemi family’s defaulted farming operations. Toncheff says he was fired June 10 after refusing to certify what he described as inaccurate financial statements and warning the company was cashflow insolvent. Assemi denies the allegations, calling Toncheff a disgruntled employee and asserting Granville Homes remains financially healthy. The company is demanding arbitration outside of court.
• Which Fresno-area schools are impacted by upcoming mascot bill? Here are the details: A new California law taking effect July 1 bars public schools not operated by tribal organizations from using derogatory Native American terms as mascots or team names, though schools can keep their imagery with permission from a registered tribe. Most affected Fresno-area high schools have already secured tribal approval, including Sanger High, Chowchilla Union High, Sierra High and Tulare Union High. Fresno Unified announced new mascots for three elementary schools ahead of the deadline. Mendota High said it was still working out its situation, and representatives for Farmersville Unified did not respond to requests for comment.

Original stories by Robert Rodriguez, Robert Kuwada and Nick Fenley.

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