Valley man pleads guilty in food plant trespass case

Michael Todora entered 1440 Foods in December and asked employees how much they earn.

By TIM MADDOCKS
For the MVI

A Speers man was fined $300 for trespassing Thursday in a plea deal that included the dismissal of a related harassment charge.

Michael Todora, 36, admitted following “a vehicle cram full of Haitians” to a Fallowfield Township food plant in December.

Todora entered the plea before Judge John F. DiSalle in the Washington County Court of Common Pleas during a proceeding that lasted roughly three minutes. The disposition came at what had been scheduled as a summary appeal trial. Todora appealed for a new trial after being convicted in April of both charges by Magistrate Judge Eric Porter..

The harassment count would have required prosecutors to show that Todora’s conduct constituted a “course of conduct with no legitimate purpose.” DiSalle accepted the plea and imposed a $300 fine plus court costs.

The incident took place Dec. 12 at 1440 Foods, a protein bar manufacturer in Fallowfield Township. At the April hearing, state Trooper Eric Moskal of the Belle Vernon barracks testified that Todora called the plant before arriving and left a voicemail stating that he knew the company hired “illegal immigrants” and was coming to confront them.

Surveillance footage, according to Moskal, captured Todora entering the building — a secure facility with three entrances posted “no trespassing” — and remaining inside for approximately three minutes. State police also alleged that Todora recorded himself confronting employees during the visit and later posted the video online.

Todora told Porter in April that he had been driving on Interstate 70 when he saw a car full of passengers — a sight he described as “peculiar” and “unfamiliar” — and decided to follow the car to the plant. Inside the building, he asked an employee how much they made per hour and was told eight dollars.

Todora, who defended himself, argued that he wasn’t harassing the factory workers, but instead was “advocating” for people who are paid “slave labor” wages, citing his attendance at Fallowfield Township and Speers Borough council meetings on the issue. “I simply wasn’t harassing — I was protesting things,” he told the court.

Porter rejected that defense and found him guilty on both counts.

The case is one of two sets of charges Todora faced stemming from videos he posted on X in which he filmed himself confronting people. The second case, involving a recorded confrontation with a shopper at a Rostraver Township Walmart, is pending in Westmoreland County.

He faces a second-degree misdemeanor charge of ethnic intimidation along with related harassment and disorderly conduct counts. A pre-trial conference is scheduled for Wednesday before Judge Michael J. Stewart II.