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(Continued from page 15)
SD contractor seeks $2.1M from failed beef plant
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A $2.1 million bankruptcy trial against a failed beef packing plant in Aberdeen is expected to last through the rest of week.
• The plaintiff is a Huron contractor that did dirt work for Northern Beef Packers seven years ago.
• Court documents show Scott Olson Digging Inc. submitted invoices for more than $5 million. The beef plant argues the amount is too high.
• Northern Beef Packers filed for bankruptcy last summer because it lacked money to buy cattle for slaughter. The company declared $138.8 million in liabilities and $79.3 million in assets.
• A San Francisco-based investment banking firm earlier this year bought the plant after holding the top bid in a sale. The firm submitted a $44.35 million bid in December, but it wouldn't disclose the final cost of the purchase.
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Supreme Court holds hearing on implied consent
NORA HERTEL, Associated Press
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday regarding the constitutionality of a state law that says drivers consent to drug and alcohol testing upon getting behind the wheel.
• Lawyers for Shauna Fierro, whose DUI case led to the current challenge, say South Dakota's 2006 law violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches.
• But the attorney general's office says the so-called implied consent law, which allows for blood to be drawn from motorists suspected of drunken driving without permission or warrant, reduces a suspect's expectation of privacy and is constitutional as along as the search is not deemed unreasonable.
• At issue is whether an April 2013 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which said police must try to obtain a search warrant from a judge before ordering blood tests for drunken driving suspects. Judges in South Dakota have disagreed whether that ruling renders the state's law unconstitutional.
• "This case is a standard DUI case," Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Hallem told the Supreme Court justices. "If you find that this search is unconstitutional, the statute is unconstitutional and the Legislature's going to have to go back and decide what to do in order to combat drunken driving on the roads."
• In the case that led to the current challenge, Fierro was arrested for driving a motorcycle under the influence of alcohol. Fierro had a blood test taken at the Meade (Continued on page 17)
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