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December 11, 2005Graceland wants lawyers to be quietFruit company wants gag order on berry lawsuitBEULAH - Graceland Fruit Inc. wants to gag attorneys for a man who's sued the company over blueberry waste that polluted a stream on his farm.Graceland attorneys filed a motion last week in 19th Circuit Court in Benzie County titled "Motion for order to cease trial publicity ... ." The motion, filed by attorneys Ronald DeWaard and Matthew Eugster of Grand Rapids, argues that Christopher Bzdok, attorney for Benzie resident Charles Brozofsky, made improper statements to the Record-Eagle. Graceland attorneys want a court order prohibiting Brozofsky's attorneys from making statements or communicating with the media about the case. Brozofsky sued Graceland and Bonney Bros. Pumping Co., and alleged blueberry waste from a Graceland fruit-processing facility that was dumped in a gravel pit by Bonney Bros. subsequently polluted a stream on his property. The suit seeks unspecified damages over $25,000. The Graceland motion concerns a Nov. 20 series of articles in the Record-Eagle (see related links below) that reported that the Michigan Attorney General's office declined a request from the Department of Environmental Quality to file felony and misdemeanor charges against Graceland and waste hauler Kevin Bonney of Bonney Bros. One of the articles quoted Bzdok about Brozofsky's civil lawsuit. The farmer said he wanted to see the pollution cleaned up and the property restored. Bzdok said he did not make improper statements. He plans to fight the motion at a hearing Wednesday in Beulah. "We're pretty appalled by it and we're going to fight it because it's the right thing to do. The public should know what happened out there," Bzdok said. "This is a public issue, and as a lawyer I have a right to express an opinion or a position about a public issue." Graceland's motion also alleged that the Record-Eagle articles contained inaccuracies, but the motion didn't specify what the defense attorneys considered inaccurate. "The stories published in the Record-Eagle relating to this matter not only fail to accurately and objectively report on this case, but also contain information (including technical and scientific information) that is irrelevant and/or inadmissible in this matter," the lawyers wrote. Eugster refused to state what he contended was inaccurate information. "I'm not going to engage in any conversation with you about that case," Eugster said. "We're not making any statements to the newspaper." The attorney general's office said it declined criminal prosecution in favor of civil settlement negotiations, which spokeswoman Melissia Christianson said in November would result in restoration of the polluted stream and civil penalties. Christianson did not return a message seeking an update on the status of settlement negotiations. According to a DEQ investigation, Graceland CEO Donald Nugent and Bonney Bros. knew or should have known Bonney was not licensed to dispose of the waste and that the waste would damage the environment. Evidence cited by the DEQ included a statement from a septic waste hauler in Frankfort who told investigators that Nugent tried to hire him to take the blueberry waste but the hauler told Nugent he could not haul the blueberry waste with a septic hauling license. Investigators also determined that Bonney attempted to spread the waste on a farmer's field, but the farmer discovered a foul smell and told Bonney and Nugent he would not accept the waste. Nugent later told an investigator that a farmer called him and complained that the blueberry waste had turned his grass black. See Related Stories:
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