Christie (booking photo) and Redwood Meat Co. (file photo)

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In the midst of being sued by members of their own family for alleged fraud and embezzlement, the majority owners of Redwood Meat Co. sold their shares of the recently shuttered business to notorious Arcata rancher Raymond F. Christie, whose trial on felony animal cruelty charges was delayed in December 2022 due to his ill health.

John “Punk” Nylander and his nephew Ryan Nylander sold their 82 percent stake in the business to Christie last Tuesday, Aug. 6, despite a temporary restraining order issued the previous week that prohibits them from selling or transferring any Redwood Meat Co. assets or taking any actions that require shareholder approval.

In a declaration to the court, Sacramento attorney Stuart L. Smith, who’s representing Christie, argued that last week’s sale of company stock was completely legal per the terms of a 40-year-old shareholder buy-out agreement that was signed by the company’s then-owners. Smith only recently became aware of this particular document.

“Under the terms of the operative transactional documents, John Nylander sold his entire 444 shares and Ryan his entire 378.75 shares to Mr. Christie for fair value,” Smith says in his declaration. “Consequently, Mr. Christie is the majority owner of Redwood Meat Company Inc, having acquired eighty-two (82) percent of its outstanding shares.”

In their recently filed lawsuit, the minority shareholders — Stephanie Nylander, Rachel Nylander Flores and Russel Nylander, who collectively own about 5.4 percent of the business — argued via their attorney, Cyndy Day-Wilson, that their dad (John Nylander) and cousin (Ryan) were attempting to sell the business without their knowledge or required shareholder approval.

The suit further alleges that, facing $900,000 in debt to the IRS, their family members were looking to offload the business after years of criminal mismanagement, including breach of fiduciary duty, unjust enrichment and document shredding.

The next hearing in this case is scheduled for Friday morning. The plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction to prohibit Redwood Meat Co.’s shareholders from selling any company assets, including stocks, until the court case is settled. Of course, since John and Ryan Nylander already sold their stake in the business, such an injunction would be akin to closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, as the saying goes. But Day-Wilson may ask the court to invalidate the transaction.

Locals likely remember Ray Christie as the rancher convicted of numerous misdemeanors for dumping more than 250 dead cows in open graves near state waters on his Arcata Bottoms farm. His 2019 trial on felony animal cruelty charges was declared a mistrial when one of the 12 jurors refused to convict him. A retrial was indefinitely postponed in 2022 due to Christie’s worsening medical issues, including a cancer diagnosis, a heart condition and vascular issues.

Christie also stood trial in 2009 for allegedly raising roosters for cockfighting and possessing dozens of cockfighting implements. That trial also resulted in a hung jury, and the charges were ultimately dropped.

The latest court filings — some of which were posted online last week by John Chiv — include a declaration submitted to the court by local attorney Dustin Owens, who is representing Redwood Meat Co., the business, but not John or Ryan Nylander.

In his filing opposing the preliminary injunction, Owens argues that such an order would be “improper as a matter of law” and would “prevent the Company, arguably, from reopening or conducting any business whatsoever which would no doubt result in the absolute destruction of the Company’s value.”

Redwood Meat Co. is worth at least $1.5 million, according to Owens, who bases that figure on the recent stock transfer to Christie. 

“The annual cash flow for the Company in 2023 was $719,219.68 according to the Company’s general ledger,” Owens writes.

He goes on to say that Ray Christie has big plans for Redwood Meat Co.

“Mr. Christie intends to aggressively restructure the company, rehire key employees and other staff that were furloughed, and reopen the Company so that it may profitably operate,” he writes in his brief to Judge Timothy Canning.

Owens argues that the preliminary injunction shouldn’t be granted because the plaintiffs can’t possibly succeed on the merits of the case, in part because they’re trying to prevent a deal that already took place.

“Injunctions have no application to alleged past wrongs that have already occurred,” he argues.

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