Just a month before Taylor Fresh Foods began grappling with a sweeping multi-state lettuce recall, the Salinas-based company filed a civil lawsuit against one of its former presidents and his wife, accusing the couple of a yearslong, $32 million embezzlement operation. According to the lawsuit, filed June 5 in federal court, Brian Thure, the former president of a Taylor Fresh Foods subsidiary in Tennessee, allegedly spent millions of dollars in company money on unauthorized purchases, including a UC Berkeley endowment, a luxury home in Hawaii and a 400-acre ranch in Humboldt County. Brian Thure’s wife, Julie Thure, was also named...