Today’s update on the poultry pollution trial between the state of Oklahoma and eleven poultry companies with operations in the Illinois River watershed comes to us from David Harper of the Tulsa World online, who reports that Federal Judge Gregory Frizzell, who is hearing the non-jury trial, decided yesterday to approve a pair of state expert witnesses that will rebut previous defense testimony. Additionally, Judge Frizzell set February 11, 2010 as the date for closing arguments in a case that has been ongoing in some form since 2005.Wednesday saw poultry industry attorneys rest their presentation, but that in no way spells the end of this long case. The rebuttal witnesses are scheduled for court on January 25-26, 2010. The state argued that, while the trial has been going on for some time (since September 24, 2009) it is important for the judge to hear all scientific testimony before reaching a decision. The defense, for their part, argued that such testimony would be repetitive, “or would not meet the legal standard for rebuttal testimony.”
In making this argument on behalf of the industry, Tyson Foods Inc. attorney Robert George said “rebuttal testimony should be reserved for what the plaintiff's side could not have anticipated heading into trial and not as a bootstrap method for it to get a ‘do-over’ for its case-in-chief.” George also noted that the trial has seen hundreds of exhibits and the transcript now exceeds 10,000 pages. Judge Frizzell was not convinced and decided it would be unfair to require the plaintiffs to have anticipated every defense the industry brought forward in order to counter at the time the testimony was being presented. Frizzell also stated he believes that ‘“this will not be the last battle” in the case.
To read the Harper article for the Tulsa World online click here.
Posted: 01/15/10
