February 24, 2010, Muncie – A former Delaware County pork producer facing prosecution for environmental crimes has disappeared.
February 24, 2010 – Muncie – A former Delaware County pork producer facing prosecution for environmental crimes has disappeared.
Delaware Circuit Court 4 Judge John Feick this week issued a warrant for the arrest of Jacobus John Tielen, 41, after he failed to appear in court for a status hearing.
Defense attorney Scott Shockley has withdrawn his appearance in the case, saying his client has been uncooperative and unresponsive. Shockley told the court that Tielen did not claim a certified letter the attorney sent to Tielen's last known address in Carthage, Ill.
A native of The Netherlands, Tielen was charged with felony environmental crimes after repeatedly failing to lower the level of manure in a lagoon that was threatening to overflow.
In 2008, Tielen's Muncie Sow Unit hog farm northeast of Eaton went broke. The criminal charges against him were dismissed after his corporation pleaded guilty to a class D felony.
However, that deal fell through after it was learned that Tielen had allowed the administrative status of the corporation to lapse with the Indiana secretary of state, meaning the corporation lacked legal capacity to plead guilty.
Last May, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management hired a contractor to pump the lagoon down and truck the manure to a wastewater treatment facility in Indianapolis.
While that was going on, someone damaged the dike of the lagoon, releasing several million gallons of manure into a tributary of the Mississinewa River. The contractor's equipment was sabotaged.
IDEM had paid the contractor nearly $200,000 before the need to remove more manure was eliminated by the broken dike.
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