Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 28, 1993 TAG: 9305280071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUGLAS PARDUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After deliberating for nine hours over two days, a federal court jury in Roanoke told U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser that it was unable to reach a verdict against any of the three men.
Kiser, who had sent the jury back to continue deliberations when jurors said they were hung earlier in the day, declared a mistrial.
"You've given it your best shot," Kiser told the jurors. "It is obviously a very sincere and thoughtful jury."
The jury had heard nearly two weeks of often tedious testimony and been presented a mountain of documents.
William Oberdick, the main government antitrust lawyer in the case, said no decision had been made on whether the government would seek to retry the three. That decision would have to be made by the antitrust office, he said.
The companies involved, Meadow Gold and Valley Rich, pleaded guilty last year to antitrust violations. Meadow Gold paid a $1 million fine and Vally Rich a $500,000 fine.
The three executives, two of whom are now retired, hugged their families after the mistrial.
Jonathan Rogers, attorney for Edgar J. Dobbins, who is a general manager with Meadow Gold and who worked at the company's Radford plant at the time the charges involve, said the three were victims of lies by a government witness who was granted immunity.
John Fishwick, attorney for James F. Woods, a former supervisor at Meadow Gold's plants at Radford and Beckely, W.Va., said a not-guilty verdict would have been preferable.
But, he said, considering that they were up against the government's antitrust office, a hung jury was the next best thing.
The other former executive is James L. Garner, who was general manager at Meadow Gold's Beckley plant.
Federal investigators contended that the three were part of a price-fixing conspiracy that affected 11 school districts and more then $3 million in milk over three school years, 1984 to 1987. It's almost impossible to calculate how much the fraud cost the schools because there's no way to know how much lower milk prices might have been if the bidding had been competitive, authorities said.
However, investigators said prices for a half pint of milk were artificially jacked up by one cent. That means the illicit profit from the bid-rigging would have been a minimum of about $230,000, not considering the lack of competitive bids.
According to federal authorities, executives with Meadow Gold, a subsidiary of Borden, and Valley Rich met at restaurants and parking lots to set prices and determine which company would submit the low bid.
The school systems involved are Roanoke, Roanoke County, Salem, Covington, Franklin County, Radford, Giles County, Botetourt County and, in West Virginia, the counties of Greenbrier, Pocahontas and Monroe.
The charges are part of a federal and state effort to go after dairies on price-fixing charges. The Virginia attorney general's office has filed suit seeking $100,000 from each of the companies. Earlier, the office obtained a more than $1 million judgment against dairies running similar schemes in eastern Virginia.
by CNB