Geologist Hired Kids, Friends For Expert Report

JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A geologist admitted Thursday that he hired his own three daughters and family friends to do legwork for a report that became the backbone of Oklahoma's pollution lawsuit against the Arkansas poultry industry.

J. Berton Fisher, one of the state's expert witnesses, testified he hired at least eight family members and friends, including the daughter of one of the attorneys handling the state's 2005 lawsuit.

Thursday was the companies' first chance to cross-examine Fisher, who had been on the stand since last week.

Poultry company attorneys tried to show Fisher had a cozy relationship with Oklahoma's attorneys and tailored his scientific findings to support their thesis that chicken waste was the main source of pollution in the Illinois River watershed.

Scott McDaniel, an attorney for Peterson Farms Inc., one of 11 companies being sued by the state, got Fisher to testify to putting family and friends on his payroll at $18 an hour, then billing Motley Rice, the South Carolina law firm representing the state on a contingency-fee basis, $35 an hour.