Civil Trial
After the corruption was discovered, federal and state government agencies refused to reimburse the county for the misused funds, resulting in a loss of $2.7 million for the county. In 2005, Buchanan County filed a civil suit to recover these funds.
In March 2006, U.S. Attorney John L. Brownlee provided the county with $1,050,544 that had been forfeited by the defendants named in the suit. The civil trial continued, and in June 2008, a federal jury awarded the county another $500,000 from two corporations named in the suit, Vansant Lumber Co. and KJ Stephens and Associates. However, this verdict was overturned by U.S. District Judge James P. Jones in October 2008.
Read more about this topic: Operation Big Coon Dog
Famous quotes containing the words civil and/or trial:
“Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites; in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity; in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption; in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“A trial cannot be conducted by announcing the general culpability of a civilization. Only the actual deeds which, at least, stank in the nostrils of the entire world were brought to judgment.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)