NC poultry processor signals Supreme Court appeal

Mar 18, 2011

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A criminal case against a poultry processor accused of intentionally dumping untreated turkey remains into waterways is advancing unless the U.S. Supreme Court steps in.

A 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals order issued March 11 clears the way for federal prosecutors to proceed with their case against House of Raeford Farms. The company wanted the case shelved while it asked the Supreme Court to consider its claim that the prosecution amounted to an unconstitutional second prosecution for the same crime.

Company attorneys argued to the appeals court that criminal charges were unconstitutional because House of Raeford had already been punished by paying nearly $1 million in fines for the same pollution offenses. The company's attorneys argued the Constitution's double-jeopardy clause "bars federal criminal prosecution based on violations of city-imposed rules -- not separate, parallel federal standards -- where the city has already fined the defendant heavily and punitively for precisely the same conduct."

The Rose Hill-based company said in a statement March 14 that both it and its employees are innocent.

"House of Raeford Farms asked the Court of Appeals to determine that, under the Constitution, it should not be prosecuted based on the same events for which it already paid fines," the company said in a statement.

A federal grand jury indicted House of Raeford Farms and the plant's manager in December 2009 on 14 counts of violating the federal Clean Water Act. The indictment accuses the company and plant manager of knowingly bypassing its water treatment system at its Raeford turkey processing plant 14 times between 2005 and 2006. The wastewater was sent directly to the city's municipal sewage treatment works, the indictment said.

The bypasses and failure to report them violated an earlier agreement by House of Raeford to stop releasing untreated waste from the plant where more than 30,000 turkeys a day are processed, federal prosecutors said.

The indictment said the treatment system at the House of Raeford processing plant couldn't handle the daily flow of 1 million gallons of wastewater containing turkey feathers, blood, internal organs and other body parts. House of Raeford "employees in the processing area would not release the untreated wastewater at a slower rate," the indictment said.

Between January 2005 and August 2006, wastewater operators bypassed units where grease was skimmed out of the discharge and workers would discharge the untreated wastewater directly to the sewer and the Raeford sewer plant. Most industries are required to treat their wastewater before it leaves a production site to remove pollutants that municipal sewage plants may not be equipped to cleanse.

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