03/28/2024
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By Andy Curliss, CEO, ncpork.org

The third case brought by the Texas lawyer against a North Carolina hog farm has been building, slowly and carefully, to what surely would be the dramatic testimony of a key plaintiff.

The plaintiff’s name is Jimmy Jacobs. He took the stand Tuesday.

And, yes, there was drama.

Jimmy is the closest of six neighbors who are suing two adjacent farms in Pender County on claims that the farms unreasonably interfere with their property.

Jimmy had been featured in the Texas lawyer’s opening statement, shown in video and photos outside his home near the farm.

Then, and since, there has been a lot of talk in the trial about Jimmy’s garden, full of collards and tomatoes, and the Texas lawyer has raised ominous feelings that… maybe… perhaps… it could be that the garden food isn’t too safe to eat. Such suggestions surely get a jury’s attention.

But Jimmy shot that down from the witness stand on Tuesday.

Yes, he said, he gardens almost the whole year. And, yes, he has fed his family and himself and plenty of friends from that garden for years upon years. And no, he said, no one has ever been sick eating from his garden. He seemed offended at the very notion, as he should be.

But that wasn’t the drama.

You see, early in the trial, a college professor who the Texas lawyer hired to run tests about the farms told the jury about going over and meeting Jimmy. The professor’s hearsay testimony was that Jimmy has complained about hog “waste” reaching his property – even on him personally.

If that were true, it’s unacceptable. That should never happen.

And then, on Tuesday in the courtroom, the Texas lawyer played the jury a video.

But it didn’t show any of that actually happening. It showed the effluent application at the hog farm occurring way off in the distance, through trees and bushes. Frankly, it was only visible on the horizon from Jimmy’s backyard with a zoomed in view.

Here’s a good look at the situation, with Jimmy’s house on the right and the hog houses way off in the distance to the left. See the trees down the middle (in autumn)?  READ MORE

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