Jan. 11—ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Owners of a Minnesota dairy farm accused of stealing millions of dollars from employees, in the form of unpaid wages, face a civil lawsuit, but not criminal charges.
Why? It seemingly comes down to the way certain offenses are customarily handled in courts in Minnesota and the U.S. It also reflects a situation in which the local and state government agencies involved can’t agree about who is responsible.
The lawsuit,
brought this week by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison against Evergreen Acres, a
lleges the dairy farm failed to pay at least $3 million of vulnerable workers’ earned wages,
illegally charged rent for squalid housing and maintained a culture of fear and violence.
What the owners are accused of meets the definition of theft in Minnesota statute and they would potentially
face up to 20 years in prison
if convicted in a criminal court.
But criminal prosecutions for wage theft are rare at both the federal and state levels, said Judd Legum, a journalist and lawyer
who recently wrote about the dueling systems for dealing with theft.
“When someone steals a six-pack of beer from a grocery store or a sweater from a boutique, it is generally treated as a criminal matter. The billions of dollars in wages stolen from workers, however, are almost always treated as a civil offense,” he wrote.
Wage theft is not uncommon in the U.S., according to the Department of Labor, which says employers owe workers about
$163.3 million in back pay,
and that doesn’t include the wage theft that goes unreported.
“In most cases, employers know that they’re not really going to get caught,” Legum said, adding that the cost for an individual to pursue back wages might outweigh what was stolen by the employer.
The lawsuit against Evergreen Acres alleges that over about three years, the Minnesota dairy farm shaved 12 to 32 hours from employee timecards for each two-week pay period. According to Ellison, the dairy farm also failed to provide employees with written information on how they are paid, something that’s required by law. The attorney general also alleges the business falsified pay stubs and destroyed time cards.
Evergreen Acres Dairy, Evergreen Estates, Morgan Feedlots and owners Keith Schaefer and Megan Hill are named in the lawsuit, which was filed in Stearns County. In the lawsuit, Ellison alleges that the dairy farm exploited the vulnerability of its workforce, which is made up of unauthorized workers largely from the Oaxaca region of Mexico.
The handling of the Evergreen Acres case reveals a shortcoming in U.S. legal practice — namely how certain crimes are handled if they are committed by individuals or privately owned businesses.
“We have different systems for how we deal with theft,” Legum said. “I think that’s fundamentally inequitable and unjust.”
While prosecutions for shoplifting are straightforward, finding who is responsible for a criminal prosecution regarding this case has led to agencies pointing the finger at each other.
Stearns County Attorney Janelle Kendall said that nothing has been submitted for consideration of prosecution to her office, meaning her office can’t charge the case criminally without another agency submitting evidence of a crime.
Stearns County Sheriff Steve Soyka pointed to the attorney general’s office and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension as the agencies responsible for filing or recommending charges regarding the case.
“Our office was not part of this investigation. We have no knowledge of what occurred here as it was all investigated by state agents including BCA and AG’s office and they can submit anything criminally,” he wrote in an email. “Further, we have never been contacted by any victim wishing to report anything to us.”
Soyka added his office would provide assistance if asked, but no agency has contacted them to do so.
The attorney general’s office maintains that it does not have the authority to file criminal charges, which falls to
Minnesota’s county attorney offices,
per state statute. However, the attorney general may help with or take over a prosecution at the request of local prosecutors or the Minnesota governor. A spokesman for the attorney general’s office was not able to say whether the office would recommend criminal charges.
A spokeswoman for the BCA said the agency would look into whether it would recommend criminal charges, but she did not reply with an answer before this story’s publication deadline.
“Prosecutors have come to view (wage theft) as a problem that is dealt with by the agencies in charge of employee wage and labor issues,” Legum said, adding that it’s understandable considering prosecutors don’t have a lot of free time.
What’s needed, according to Legum, are investments in prosecutors who are dedicated to prosecuting these types of crimes.
“Absent that, I don’t think it’s necessarily fair to say ‘Oh, well the prosecutors have to take on this massive systemic problem that’s happening at so many different employers, investigate all of that and prosecute it criminally,'” he said.
Trent Abrego contributed to this story.
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