
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 30, 1993                   TAG: 9306300313
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Doug Pardue
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CHARGES DROPPED IN MILK CASE

Federal antitrust attorneys have decided to drop prosecution of three present or former executives of Meadow Gold Dairies accused of conspiring to fix milk prices at Roanoke-area and West Virginia schools.

Edgar J. Dobbins, James F. Woods and James L. Garner were tried last month, but a federal court jury was unable to reach a verdict after two weeks of testimony.

Jonathan Rogers, attorney for Dobbins, said prosecutors decided not to retry the three after checking with the jurors and learning that the majority wanted to acquit the milk executives.

Rogers said his check with the jury revealed they favored acquittal 9-3.

As a result of the government's decision not to prosecute, U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser ordered the charges dismissed.

Defense attorneys argued that the executives were set up by a lying government witness who was given immunity.

Federal investigators contended that the three were part of a price-fixing scheme that affected 11 school districts and more than $3 million in school milk from 1984 to 1987.

The two companies involved, Meadow Gold and Valley Rich, pleaded guilty last year to antitrust violations. Meadow Gold was fined $1 million and Valley Rich got a $500,000 fine.

by CNB