Ex-manager at Upper Crust charges owner threatened to ruin his life, kill him

Adam Castiglioni alerts us to the latest salvo against the Upper Crust chain - a federal lawsuit by Patrick Joyce, who says he quit in disgust over the way owner Jordan Tobins was treating his illegal-alien workers only to have Tobins dock his final pay and threaten him.

In his suit, filed yesterday in US District Court in Boston, Joyce charges Tobins falsely accused him of participation in a robbery of the chain's Commonwealth Avenue location after Joyce told the federal labor department about the way the illegals were being forced to work overtime to make up the settlements the feds ordered the company to pay for making the illegals work overtime without pay. He alleges that when he then quit and was shorted on his final check and threatened to go to the labor department, Tobins replied:

Patrick if you go to the Department of Labor I will (expletive) kill you. I will tell your fiance that you are cheating on her and I will ruin your life.

The Upper Crust and Tobins have yet to reply to the lawsuit, which seeks back pay and damages for emotional distress.

The complete complaint.