THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 17, 1997 TAG: 9701180386
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 103 lines
The former sewage plant manager at Smithfield Foods Inc. was sentenced to 30 months in prison Thursday for polluting the Pagan River with hog wastes for years and lying about it on government reports.
Terry Lynn Rettig, 46, of Virginia Beach, fought back tears after his sentencing for 23 violations of the national Clean Water Act in one of the largest environmental criminal cases in years in Hampton Roads.
Among other offenses he has pleaded guilty to, Rettig destroyed pollution records at Smithfield Foods, the East Coast's largest pork processor, and falsified documents for three other sewage plants he ran during the 1990s, including one for the town of Surry.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith chose not to fine Rettig, however, citing his lack of income and an outstanding debt of $55,000 to the Internal Revenue Service.
He faced a maximum penalty of $5.75 million and as much as 54 years in prison, according to a strict interpretation of the law. Under federal sentencing guidelines, however, his maximum prison time was 37 months.
``I think you're paying a tremendous price for your actions,'' Smith told Rettig, who earlier recounted how he has lost his business, his job, his bank account and his reputation.
While prosecutors portrayed the bald, bespectacled Rettig as a rogue polluter, an unscrupulous man who repeatedly broke the law even when state and federal investigators closed in, he and his attorney, Charles R. Burke, painted a much different picture.
In a 20-page statement, Rettig claimed that his bosses at Smithfield Foods for years knew that he filed false pollution reports to the state Department of Environmental Quality.
He also alleged that senior managers throughout his career at the meatpacking giant, from 1983 to 1995, encouraged him to disguise from state regulators the fact that slaughterhouses in Isle of Wight County were creating serious pollution.
``My supervisors knew I was cooking the books,'' Rettig wrote. ``In this whole matter, I feel like a pawn, a scapegoat, a fool.''
Lawyers and officials at Smithfield Foods immediately rejected the charges, saying that Rettig signed a sworn affidavit when he left the company in 1995 that he never was encouraged or directed to lie about pollutants flowing from company slaughterhouses into the Pagan River.
``We have no knowledge of any of that going on at Smithfield Foods,'' said Aaron Trub, general counsel and spokesman for the company famous for its hams and sausages.
Added Anthony Troy, a Richmond attorney defending Smithfield Foods in other pending environmental legal action: ``Keep in mind that this case is not just about Smithfield Foods. This guy's wandering all over southeast Virginia cooking the books. Are we to believe that he was victimized by all those people, too?''
In his statement, Rettig also had harsh words for state environmental regulators, whose inspections he described as ``social calls.''
``They did their best not to find any problems,'' he wrote.
Inspections were often announced two weeks in advance, he recalled. ``The news of the pending inspection would be relayed up the chain of supervisors and if necessary plant operations would be modified to insure that the water treatment looked good,'' Rettig wrote.
T. March Bell, deputy director of the state Department of Environmental Quality, denounced the charge as an attempt to win sympathy from the judge for a lighter sentence.
``This is a guy going to jail for fraud,'' Bell said. ``Don't expect him to say anything that smacks of the truth.''
DEQ recently has instituted a new policy involving surprise inspections at troubled facilities, including Smithfield Foods, Bell said. One of the first surprise inspections, conducted last month, discovered sewage overflows that Smithfield officials failed to notify the state about.
The case resulted in Gov. George F. Allen asking the state attorney general to seek a court injunction against Smithfield Foods. The injunction was granted, forcing the company to follow strict guidelines to protect against future spills.
Smithfield Foods still faces two civil lawsuits for past environmental problems, one from the state and the other from the U.S. Justice Department. Both seek fines for excessive water pollution during Rettig's time at the company.
Rettig is cooperating with state and federal lawyers in both cases and will testify if called, said Burke, his Virginia Beach-based attorney.
Indeed, Rettig has been talking with federal investigators for more than a year about the goings-on inside Smithfield Foods. However, his cooperation did not result in any leniency during his sentencing Thursday as the government asked for the maximum penalty.
Lawyers for Smithfield Foods said this shows that Rettig did not give them credible information. Burke said it more likely meant that his client could not provide prosecutors with enough evidence for ``an iron-clad case'' against senior managers at Smithfield Foods and therefore chose not to help him.
Regardless, Rettig must report to a minimum-security prison, probably in Petersburg, within 30 days. He will remain on one year of supervised probation after his release and can only apply for a new line of credit with the court's consent. ILLUSTRATION: WATER POLLUTION TRIAL
Former Smithfield Foods sewage plant manager Terry Lynn Rettig,
46, of Virginia Beach was sentenced Thursday to 2 1/2 years in
prison for 23 violations of the national Clean Water Act.
Among other offenses, Rettig pleaded guilty to destroying records
detailing pollution of the Pagan River, filing false pollution
reports to the state, and hiding sewage problems from state
inspectors.
KEYWORDS: SENTENCING POLLUTION