One defendant was dismissed from a complex trial Wednesday over an alleged conspiracy that led to one of the state’s largest immigration raids.
An Atkinson businessman, had been accused of money laundering and two charges related to harboring illegal immigrants in connection with a staffing agency established in O’Neill to provide undocumented workers to hog confinements, a tomato greenhouse, a potato packing facility and other farm-related businesses.
But on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge John Gerrard dismissed the money laundering charge against Good, ruling that federal prosecutors had failed to provide evidence of that crime. The judge ordered a mistrial on the two other charges against Good, ruling that testimony against two other defendants had made it impossible for Good to receive a fair trial.
The trial for the two remaining defendants a manager of hog confinements, and a secretary at a massive tomato greenhouse in O’Neill, is expected to conclude on Friday.