Lancaster Farmer Fights the Courts on Food Safety Rules

There is an ongoing court action involving Lancaster, PA farmer Amos Miller as he tries to write his own rules for food safety.  Our good friend George Lapsley took the Justice Department's assignment for verifying that the Miller Organic Farm would adhere to the court order, but  Miller's refusal to work with George has landed Miller back in court.  Miller claims sovereign citizen rights, that is, that he has the right to set his own rules....but the court is not having any of it.   


https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/lancaster-farmer-agrees-again-to-follow-court-order-after-refusing-to-allow-food-safety-expert/article_dc563262-9feb-11ec-9847-eb35032cf6e9.html
Lancaster farmer agrees, again, to follow court order after refusing to allow food safety expert to inspect farm
DAN NEPHIN | Staff Writer Mar 10, 2022

A month ago, a federal judge appointed an expert to work with Upper Leacock farmer Amos Miller to make sure he complied with food safety laws and court orders — something he’s shown an unwillingness to do for years.

The arrangement hasn’t gotten off to a good start.

Three times, the expert visited Miller’s Organic Farm, but he never was able to inspect it, despite a court order.

The first time — one week after U.S. District Judge Edward G. Smith’s appointed George Lapsley as expert — Lapsley said an employee told him Miller wasn’t there and refused him entrance. Even so, he said he was able to see workers packaging meat and poultry, which isn’t permitted until Miller is in compliance.

On a March 4 visit, Lapsley said Miller handed him a note that read, “What are the compelling public interests to be here? Please respond by paper.”

When Lapsley asked to talk with him, Miller asked about his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination. When Lapsley told Miller the right concerned law enforcement, he said Miller shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

And so on Wednesday afternoon Miller, government representatives and a frustrated defense attorney who’s been trying to steer Miller in the right direction, dialed in to a status conference call with the judge for a course-correction.

“You appear to be simply refusing to acknowledge the authority and the jurisdiction of this court in this matter,” Smith told Miller.

Miller tried to ask the judge if he read a recent filing he made. The largely unintelligible filing espoused “sovereign citizen” rhetoric.

Sovereign citizens believe in the baseless assertion that individuals, and not courts or lawmakers, can decide what laws to follow.

Smith said he wouldn’t recognize the sovereign citizen organization that Miller has been relying on for advice.

Miller tried another tack.

“If I may address the court, what is the compelling public interest in this case?” Miller asked. He said because he only sells his “nutrient dense food” to private buying club members in his buying club, he isn’t engaging in public commerce.

“You're concerned about what the public interest is in protecting food safety?” Smith replied, sounding exasperated.

Miller’s attorney, Steven Lafuente, of Dallas, Texas, said he was “at my wits’ end” trying to reason with Miller.

He said Miller was a nice man, but impressionable.

“He has lent his ear to people who are sovereign citizens who have no idea what they are doing. And he’s going to get himself in a lot of trouble,” Lafuente told the judge.

That will be seen in about a month. Smith asked Miller if he would cooperate with Lapsley. Miller said he would.

Smith also directed Miller to come up with $50,000 by March 18 as a good-faith showing toward paying more than $250,000 in fines and costs Smith already levied. Some of the money will be used to pay Lapsley.

If Miller isn’t showing cooperation in an April 12 status conference, Smith warned Miller, it could turn into a contempt hearing.

A possible outcome of that could be jail. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerald Sullivan told Smith that already, other government entities were urging jail time for Miller’s noncompliance.

Miller’s first came to the attention of federal authorities in 2016, when the Food and Drug Administration said it identified Listeria in samples of Miller’s raw milk; the agency found the Listeria to be genetically similar to the bacteria found in two people who developed listeriosis — one of whom died — after consuming raw milk.