Justice Department drops some charges in chicken price-fixing case

The U.S. has dropped all charges against five of the 10 defendants in a price-fixing case that targeted workers and executives from some of the nation’s largest chicken producing companies.

Lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion after jurors came to an impasse on Tuesday, resulting in a second mistrial after a different jury failed to reach a verdict in December.

They asked U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer to dismiss all charges against half of the defendants “to streamline the case and conserve the resources of the court, the parties, and the public.”

The judge approved the motion Thursday.

A third trial is in the works against the remaining five defendants, including former Pilgrim’s Pride CEOs Jayson Penn and William Lovette. Also facing trial are Roger Austin, a former Pilgrim’s vice president; Mikell Fries, president of Claxton Poultry; and Scott Brady, a Claxton vice president.

The failure to return verdicts twice on the government’s claim of a yearslong conspiracy to fix chicken prices marked a blow to U.S. efforts to police competition.

Robert Steinbuch, a law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said he is glad the Justice Department pursues difficult antitrust cases, even when things start to fall apart.

“We must be ever vigilant about particularly these companies that have a corner on the market, because the incentives for them are great to act in a predatory fashion, and surely the Justice Department believes they in fact did,” he said.

The government initially indicted ten poultry industry employees and executives on charges of conspiring to fix prices and rig bids from 2012 to early 2019. If convicted, the remaining defendants face prison time and fines.

After declaring a mistrial in the second case, the judge ordered a top Justice Department lawyer to travel to his Denver courtroom to explain why a third trial was necessary after “the government has failed in two attempts to convict even one defendant.”

The latest motion effectively removed the following defendants from the case: Timothy Mulrenin, a Perdue executive who previously worked for Tyson Foods; William Kantola, a Koch Foods Inc. executive; Jimmie Lee Little, a former Pilgrim’s sales director; Gary Brian Roberts, a Case Farms employee who had worked at Tyson; and Ric Blake, a former director and manager at George’s Inc.

A spokesperson with the Justice Department did not immediately return message for comment.

A serious challenge when prosecuting antitrust cases is the sheer complexity of the subject matter, making it harder to garner a conviction.

“They are often highly technical and then we ask a lay jury to make a determination,” said Steinbuch, who used to work for the Justice Department. “It doesn’t mean we should alter our system, but that is one of the most significant challenges.”

The case is USA v. Penn, 20-cr-00152, U.S. District Court, District of Colorado.