The owners of the Colt Grill BBQ & Spirits restaurant chain in northern Arizona have pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from a scheme that prosecutors say funneled dozens of unauthorized immigrants into their kitchens while dodging minimum wage and overtime laws. Robert Clouston pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of a pattern and practice of knowingly employing unauthorized immigrants and a felony charge of conspiracy to harbor undocumented immigrants, while his wife and co-owner, Brenda Clouston, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of knowingly hiring unauthorized immigrants.
Both pleas, entered under plea agreements, are dated September 29, according to the San Luis Obispo Tribune. The couple co-owned four Colt Grill locations in northern Arizona and a fifth in Foley, Alabama, and both are now scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 6, court records show. Robert Clouston faces a maximum prison term of 10 years, a maximum fine of $250,000, and an additional fine of up to $3,000 for each unauthorized immigrant, all per his plea agreement; Brenda Clouston also faces a maximum fine of up to $3,000 per unauthorized immigrant under her own agreement. The couple have remained free on their own recognizance throughout the case.
Checks to a Cleaning Company, Workers in the Kitchen
According to a federal grand jury indictment, the scheme centered on a company called R&R AZ Cleaning, which two other defendants, Luis Pedro Rogel-Jaimes and Iris Romero-Molina, formed on September 27, 2022. The indictment accused the four defendants of creating the company specifically so Colt Grill could pay workers with its own funds while avoiding standard employment obligations. Colt Grill issued checks to R&R AZ Cleaning, which in turn paid workers with that money, and the company supplied undocumented immigrants to work as cooks, bussers, kitchen staff and pitmasters, per the indictment.
Rogel-Jaimes and Romero-Molina have already pleaded guilty, entering pleas in April to a misdemeanor pattern-and-practice hiring charge and a felony conspiracy-to-harbor charge, and both were sentenced to six months of time served on June 23. The two admitted hiring at least 66 undocumented immigrants to work at the restaurants through R&R AZ Cleaning, according to tucson.com. The indictment also accused the Cloustons of paying undocumented workers below minimum wage and failing to pay overtime, and the station notes Colt Grill treated the workers as contractors in an apparent effort to avoid the federal I-9 employment eligibility process.
Text Messages Cited in Court Filings
Court filings describe text exchanges between Robert Clouston and Rogel-Jaimes that prosecutors say show Clouston's knowledge of the arrangement. On April 22, 2022, Clouston allegedly texted Rogel-Jaimes that he could use up to 10 workers and would secure a house in Prescott; Rogel-Jaimes reportedly replied that he had a person at the border trying to cross. Months later, on September 16, 2022, Rogel-Jaimes allegedly texted Clouston that one of his people at the border had passed that day and asked about training the person as a smoker, to which Clouston replied yes.
Per his plea agreement, Robert Clouston admitted he knew workers Rogel-Jaimes brought from Mexico were unauthorized and not permitted to work in the United States, and that he knew there was a high probability other workers supplied by Rogel-Jaimes and Romero-Molina were also undocumented. He said he knowingly hired and continued employing those workers after learning of their status. Clouston also admitted renting a house in Prescott and a second in Prescott Valley in July and September 2022 to house undocumented immigrants, working with Rogel-Jaimes and Romero-Molina to provide housing from 2022 through May 26, 2025. He said he knew the residents of those houses had entered and remained in the country illegally, and that providing them shelter amounted to harboring people in reckless disregard of their unlawful presence, with intent to violate the law, according to his plea agreement. Robert Clouston also agreed to pay overtime to unauthorized workers employed by the couple, per the same agreement.
The July 2025 Raid and Its Aftermath
The case traces back to July 15, 2025, when federal immigration agents raided four Colt Grill restaurants in Prescott, Prescott Valley, Cottonwood and the Village of Oak Creek in Sedona, along with the fifth location in Foley, Alabama. Agents searched 12 residences that day, and the Cloustons were arrested along with the two other defendants. redrocknews.com reported that 20 Colt Grill workers were detained on immigration charges during the raid, while azcentral.com put that figure at 22, and Brenda Clouston's plea agreement states that federal agents detained 32 Colt Grill workers — accounts that differ on the exact number. Per that same plea agreement, 30 Colt Grill workers were ultimately placed in immigration deportation proceedings.
The human toll of those detentions became visible in the months that followed. Ingrid Ayon, a 23-year-old former Colt Grill busser who had lived in the United States since she was four months old, was later deported. Maria Cristina Tapia Cornejo, a 71-year-old former Colt Grill dishwasher and great-grandmother, was detained for more than 10 months at a federal immigration detention center in Eloy before her release this past June. The fallout extended well beyond those directly charged: the closure of Colt Grill's Arizona restaurants left roughly 200 employees out of work, according to azcentral.com.
Investigation Spanned Three Years Before Charges
The arrests that followed the July raid capped what azcentral.com has described as a three-year investigation led by Homeland Security Investigations, with a grand jury handing up the indictment against all four defendants on May 27, 2025, according to KTAR. That indictment accused the Cloustons, Rogel-Jaimes and Romero-Molina of conspiring to smuggle undocumented immigrants from Mexico for restaurant work and housing. Robert Clouston's Flagstaff attorney, Ryan Stevens, declined to comment, and the Arizona Republic reported it did not immediately receive a response from Brenda Clouston's attorneys. With both owners now having entered guilty pleas, the case moves toward sentencing in January, when the court will determine what penalties the Cloustons ultimately face.
