State of Iowa won't file charges in turkey plant worker case

Iowa won't pursue criminal charges against a Texas company that's accused of exploiting developmentally disabled workers at a turkey plant in eastern Iowa.

According to The Des Moines Register, the Iowa Attorney General's Office says the civil penalties that other agencies have obtained against Henry's Turkey Service and its owners will hold the company accountable and serve as a deterrent.

Hill Country Farms, of Goldthwaite, Texas, does business as Henry's Turkey Service. For years it supplied the workers to a turkey processing plant in West Liberty.

U.S. District Judge Harold Vietor ordered Hill Country Farms and its president in April to pay $1.76 million in back wages and damages for repeatedly violating federal labor laws by not paying the minimum wage or overtime to 31 disabled men.