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Poultry outfit: Ethics violated
BY ROBERT J. SMITH Posted on Thursday, October 11, 2007, Arkansas Democrat Gazette; A former Peterson Farms executive denied Wednesday that he offered information about his previous employer for pay to Oklahoma to help with its lawsuit against eight Arkansas poultry companies.
Poultry outfit: Ethics violated
Posted on Thursday, October 11, 2007
A former Peterson Farms executive denied Wednesday that he offered information about his previous employer for pay to Oklahoma to help with its lawsuit against eight Arkansas poultry companies.
Federal court documents filed on Monday by Decaturbased Peterson Farms claim Kerry Kinyon, the company’s former vice president of operations, wanted money for information he’d provide to Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson and attorneys working on the state’s behalf.
Peterson Farms believes the e-mails and telephone calls between Kinyon and an attorney working for Oklahoma raise serious ethical issues for the Oklahoma attorneys.
Kinyon was involved in company discussions and strategy meetings about how to defend against the lawsuit filed against Peterson Farms and the other companies, court papers show. The lawsuit, filed in 2005, accuses the companies of polluting the Illinois River watershed.
“There are rules that dictate how the attorney general’s lawyers can and cannot communicate with a former highly placed executive like Mr. Kinyon,” said Scott McDaniel, a Tulsa attorney who represents Peterson Farms. “We don’t have any objection to them taking his deposition, but we want it to be open according to the rules with Peterson Farms’ attorneys present.”
Kinyon, who said he was fired in November, said his e-mail and telephone calls between February and May to attorneys working for Oklahoma didn’t involve the lawsuit.
“I can’t comment on what it had to do with, either,” Kinyon said. “It ended up not so good at the end, but I wouldn’t do anything to harm Peterson Farms.”
Peterson Farms tells a different story in the court documents filed in U. S. District Court in Tulsa. Kinyon is described as a “bitter man, who for reasons unknown to Peterson, has set out to hurt the company.”
Court papers claim Kinyon sent an anonymous e-mail Feb. 19 to Joe Rice, a South Carolina attorney who’s firm is helping Oklahoma with its legal battle against the poultry companies. Kinyon offered to “tell his story” and stated that he was not seeking a “big payday.” He never said what he was seeking, court papers show.
Kinyon identified himself in an e-mail to Rice two days later, and an attorney representing Oklahoma indicated he was interested in talking to Kinyon.
Communication between Kinyon and David Bingham, a Tulsa attorney helping Oklahoma with the lawsuit, contin- ued through May, court papers claim.
They exchanged e-mail and talked by telephone, and Kinyon offered to provide a “confidential envelope” of Peterson documents to Oklahoma’s attorneys. In letters written to Scott McDaniel, an attorney representing Peterson Farms, Oklahoma attorneys deny receiving the envelope or information relevant to the lawsuit.
Emily Lang, a spokesman for Edmondson’s office, said there should be no ethical concerns.
Oklahoma does intend to question Kinyon in a deposition.
“We were contacted by Mr. Kinyon,” Lang said. “We consulted ethics experts inside and outside the attorney general’s office about how to proceed in an ethical manner. We disclosed the contact to the defense during discovery and will file a response to their motion.”