Fifth-Place Winner of Constantine Cannon’s Whistleblower Essay Contest: Connor Dela-Cruz
By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team
The Constantine Cannon whistleblower team is delighted to announce the Fifth-Place Winner of the firm’s Fifth Law School Scholarship Essay Contest. That award (and the $250 prize) goes to Connor Dela-Cruz.
About Connor Dela-Cruz
Connor is a third-year law student at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School, where he focuses on intellectual property, corporate law, and emerging legal issues surrounding artificial intelligence. He currently serves as a Fellow on the Utah Supreme Court’s Ad Hoc Committee on Regulatory Reform, advising on attorney fee-sharing and the integration of AI into legal practice. His passion for law stems from a commitment to expanding access to justice and helping clients protect and commercialize their ideas.
Connor’s First Experience with Whistleblowing
In Connor’s essay, he wrote about his first experience with whistleblowing while interning at Utah Legal Services.
According to Connor: “As I move forward in my career, I want to stand with vulnerable clients, like whistleblowers, who risk everything to speak out.”
His Winning Essay:
I never expected my first experience with whistleblowing to happen on a farm in northern Utah. Whistleblowers are often associated with major corporations or government scandals. I spent the summer after my first year of law school at Utah Legal Services (ULS) working with a group of migrant farmworkers who exposed their employer for human trafficking. Retaliation threatened not only their jobs but also their immigration status and their families’ survival. I learned from their story that whistleblowing is not only about exposing corruption at the top, but protecting vulnerable people at the margins.
The H-2A and H-2B visa program allows migrant workers to come to the U.S. for temporary work. Workers usually leave their families for four to five months, send money home, and then spend the rest of the year in their home countries. For many seasonal jobs, such as agricultural or landscaping work, employers often experience high employee turnover. The visa program creates a reliable labor force.
Some employers take advantage of the workers. Because they lack English skills and knowledge of U.S. law, they are at the mercy of their employers for housing and transportation. This makes it easy to get away with underpaying workers. Our clients at ULS came to Utah with promises of opportunity but many were met instead with exploitation. In one case, we worked with migrants who were hired by Ron Gibson, the former president of the Utah Farm Bureau and owner of Gibson Farms.1
For many years, Gibson Farms relied on the H-2A visa program for its seasonal work. The work was difficult, but our clients made a steady living until around 2023. By then, their paychecks no longer reflected the hours they actually worked. Eventually, they stopped coming.
I interviewed workers who lived in an overcrowded house with malfunctioning appliances and a broken septic tank that left raw sewage flooding the basement for weeks until neighbors complained.2 At work, Gibson berated them with slurs and physical intimidation. Id. In August 2023, they finally confronted him. Id. Gibson quickly lost his temper and struck one of the workers so hard that he knocked multiple teeth loose.3 Another worker recorded the entire incident. Id. With the help of local news, the video went viral across the internet. Id. The video triggered investigations into the assault as well as fraud and human trafficking.4
The workers I met who stood up to him were dismissed, not only losing their jobs but risking their immigration status. Some returned to their home countries disillusioned with future opportunities in the U.S.; others remain in the United States to this day, struggling to recover the wages they are owed and to provide for their families. Some chose to work with ULS, fighting to reclaim their lost wages. Gibson pleaded guilty to assault and was given a 90-day suspended jail sentence, placed on 12 months probation, and required to serve 20 hours of community service.5
These workers deserved more, but because they spoke up, their voices reached beyond the fields. State agencies opened cases, journalists covered their living conditions, and neighbors saw the injustice playing out in their own community. What was once hidden became undeniable. Through work and the news I learned of investigations into other Utah businesses that underscore the ongoing threat of labor trafficking in the state.6 When I was at ULS, we represented over 2007 cases of migrant workers seeking wage claims and applying for T visas.8
Whistleblowers serve the public good by exposing harms institutions would prefer to ignore. In this case, their voices revealed not only the mistreatment of one group of workers, but deeper flaws in how agricultural labor is monitored and protected throughout Utah. They forced accountability from a leader in Utah agriculture and showed that even powerful figures are not above the law.
This experience was important in shaping how I view my role in the legal profession.
Lawyers must protect and amplify the voices of those who come forward. My time at ULS taught me that advocacy begins with listening and trust, but it must end with action that makes whistleblowing worth the risk. As I move forward in my career, I want to stand with vulnerable clients, like whistleblowers, who risk everything to speak out. Their example reminds me that while silence can protect abuse, truth can expose it. My commitment as a lawyer is to ensure that when people find the courage to speak, the law responds not with indifference, but with justice and accountability.
More Whistleblower Essays
Constantine Cannon congratulates Connor on his exemplary essay, and we invite readers to peruse our other winning essays. And to all those law students looking to follow in Connor’s footsteps with their own winning essay, we just launched our Sixth Whistleblower Essay Contest. Throw your hat in the ring! We look forward to reading what you have to say about whistleblowers or your own whistleblower experience.
Sources:
1Utah Farm Bureau, Statement on Resignation of Ron Gibson (Aug. 14, 2023), https://www.utahfarmbureau.org/Article/Statement-on-Resignation-of-Ron-Gibson (At the time of the leak, Gibson was serving as president of the Utah Farm Bureau; he resigned days after the leak of his assault and labor exploitation).
2Connor Dela-Cruz & Pamela Beatse, Harnessing the Power of Collaboration: Civil Legal Services, a Law Student, and the Employment Law Section Provide Justice for Migrant Workers, 38 Utah B.J. 20 (Jan/Feb 2025).
3Eliza Pace, President of Utah Farm Bureau Arrested for Assault, Investigated for Human Trafficking, KSLTV (Aug. 13, 2023) (updated Nov 25, 2024 at 11:13 am) https://ksltv.com/local-news/president-of-utah-farm-bureau-arrested-for-assault-investigated-for-human-trafficking/5 76403/.
4Nicole Acevedo and Edwin Flores, Dispute Between Utah Farmer and Farmworkers Triggers Probe into Fraud, Human Trafficking, NBC News (Aug. 18, 2023), https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/dispute-utah-farmer-farmworkers-triggers-probe-fraud-human-trafficking-rcna100390
5Jeff Tavss, Former Utah Farm Bureau President Sentenced for Assaulting Farm Worker, FOX 13 (Nov. 25, 2024)https://www.fox13now.com/news/crime/former-utah-farm-bureau-president-sentenced-for-assaulting-farm-worker
6Pat Reavy, Labor Trafficking Charges Against Rubicon Dismissed Without Prejudice, KSL (Mar. 28, 2025), https://www.ksl.com/article/51285049/labor-trafficking-charges-against-rubicon-dismissed-without-prejudice
7Connor Dela-Cruz et al.
8T visas are special visas for human trafficking victims. At ULS, we helped them submit the T visa applications and write personal statements. U.S. Citizenship & Immigr. Servs., Victims of Human Trafficking: T Nonimmigrant Status (last updated May 16, 2025), https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/victims-of-human-trafficking-t-nonimmigrant-status
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