About my time working for Corona Recreation, Inc.

d/b/a Santa Ana River Lakes, a/k/a SARL, a/k/a FishingLakes.com

4060 E La Palma Ave, Anaheim CA 92807-1754

Please don't harass or threaten anyone with SARL. It's wrong, and it's counter-productive. Also, please keep in mind that SARL shares their street address with an office for the Orange County Water District.

SARL is a private fishing park. the Main Lake is also known as the Warner Basin. I created this page because I allege that my employment with SARL was terminated in retaliation for complaining about a manager who, in my opinion, is a severely abusive person. I allege that this manager engaged in aggressive and obnoxious conduct that was so persistent and extreme that it was unlawful and exceeded all bounds of decency. I also allege many other acts of retaliation. I allege that the aggressive conduct and the retaliation caused a tremendous amount of harm to myself and others.

SARL has criticized me for the depth of my investigation, and I know that they consider me to be vexing. But the reality is that when an employer is defensive, there's no chance of holding them accountable unless you're willing to dig in hard and get the information that you need. The alternative is for employers to be essentially invincible. I allege that SARL created a culture of fear by resorting to most complaints reflexively with retaliation. My former co-workers constantly complained privately that they had no recourse. My investigation was called for.

SARL has accused me of exaggerating. The opposite is true to an extreme degree, or so I allege. In the first place, I have to limit the allegations to what I think I can prove. And improper conduct was severely underreported because my former co-workers knew that retaliation was almost always inevitable as a result, or so I allege.

I intend to provide redacted documents on this page with as much authentication as I can.

• I started working at SARL on December 28, 2021.
• SARL's self-described "Night GM," Krisshawn "Kris" Caldwell has claimed to be a Navy veteran.
• I was told by owners more than once that Caldwell's conduct is excused, in part, because it's partly due to him being a veteran. We had many customers who were veterans, and I don't recall a single instance of any of them acting up.
• The Navy didn't have any record of service by Caldwell.
• Because it was technically possible that Caldwell could have been in before 1995, the National Archives may have been the proper custodian of records from which to find evidence of service by Caldwell. However, they had no records of service by Caldwell either.
• Because hearsay indicated that Caldwell had also claimed to be a SEAL, an expert on fake SEALs, Don Shipley, was consulted. A former SEAL, he has special access to a training database which he searches based on requests from the public for a small fee. Caldwell was never a SEAL.
• Shipley describes the tricks that fake military characters use to fake service. Claims that records are sealed and production of fake documents are very common, but Shipley indicates that there is no such thing as a SEAL who doesn't appear in the training database. The FBI reports that over 99&perc; of persons who claim to have been a SEAL are fakers, an unfortunate reality for real SEALs.
• This is speculation, but I think that Caldwell's primary source of evidence of service is a Navy FCU bank card. Members are not strictly limited to veterans, and in my opinion, it doesn't stack up to the overwhelming evidence that he never served.
• It's extremely unlikely that Caldwell ever served in the military. Shipley's assessment based on the Navy's response was that it was conclusive.
• Since I started, at least two people quit primarily because of Caldwell's conduct.
• Caldwell's conduct was a substantial factor in at least two more resignations.
• Only one or two people parted ways with the company for reasons having nothing to do with Caldwell's conduct, at least as far as I know.
• Based on history, if you work for SARL, you will probably quit or be fired because of Caldwell.
• A co-worker says that Caldwell boasted that he had some "military buddies" come to the workplace to intimidate me into dropping complaints about him. It's true that I took a break from complaining about Caldwell, but the incident that he described never happened. I have no reason to doubt my co-worker's claim. To me, it's very consistent with Caldwell's typical conduct.
• Then, on January 19, 2025, I was held up at gunpoint for all of the money in the cash register that I was working. Many people made unsolicited comments that Caldwell should be suspected of involvement. That turned out to be unlikely, as the police caught the assailant a few days later, yet at the time these comments were deeply concerning in light of Caldwell's previous claim about having friends come in to bother me.
• On Christmas Eve of 2024, I mailed a very formal complaint about Caldwell to SARL.
• When I was called in to discuss the complaint in person, I wasn't asked to clarify anything from the complaint. I was given a spiel about how SARL was in a position where it was impossible for them to take any adverse action against Caldwell. I would describe it as their attorney trying to run first year impeachment routines on me.
• After this, derogatory information about me started appearing in my personnel file when there had been none for three years.
• SARL failed to pay some employees, including me, at least minimum wage at the beginning of 2024.
• SARL failed to pay some employees, including me, at least minimum wage for over four months in 2025.
• I was "laid off" on June 18, 2025. The stated reason was that they "lost a lot of money" in 2024, and they couldn't afford to keep me.
• When I was terminated, SARL offered me a $3,500.00 "severance" deal in exchange for a release of claims and confidentiality. I rejected it.