Chicken-Industry Executives Found Not Guilty of Price-Fixing (3)

Five chicken industry executives were found not guilty of conspiring to fix prices from 2012 to 2019, a defeat for prosecutors that came after two mistrials and a major setback for the Biden administration’s attempts to police rising meat costs.

Jurors on Thursday acquitted former Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. chief executive officers Jayson Penn and William Lovette; Roger Austin, a former Pilgrim’s vice president; Mikell Fries, president of Claxton Poultry; and Scott Brady, a Claxton vice president, after more than a day of deliberations in Denver federal court. Two earlier trials ended in hung juries.

Criminal trials ...