Jim Pillen

In 2000, 18 residents near Pillen's hog confinement operations in Boone and Nance counties sued alleging the facilities constituted a private nuisance due to unbearable odors. After a bench trial in 2002, the district court granted injunctive relief but denied most monetary damages. The Nebraska Court of Appeals in 2004 upheld the nuisance finding and injunction requiring odor mitigation, and remanded for reconsideration of damages for certain plaintiffs who had established sufficient harm. Total damages awarded were $42,500. Pillen's attorney characterized the modest award as a successful outcome for the producer.

In December 2000, eighteen neighbors near St. Edward, Nebraska, sued partnerships operating four hog confinement units co-owned by Jim Pillen, alleging nuisance from 'vile, obnoxious, and nauseating' odor and citing state livestock-regulation violations. The judge personally inspected a facility and awarded the neighbors a total of $42,500 and ordered odor-mitigation measures. This was a civil judgment against the hog-farm partnerships (business entities) co-owned and operated by Pillen, not a personal criminal matter.

In 2006, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife employee reported that workers at Inland Foods, a Hastings-area hog farm co-owned by Pillen Family Farms, were pumping hog waste onto a nearby federal wetlands area; state regulators alleged the discharge was unreported and that employees used an unpermitted PVC pipe to drain a manure storage pit into a freshwater channel. The Pillen-affiliated operation (a business entity) eventually entered a court-ordered agreement with Nebraska state regulators and paid a civil penalty. The specific penalty amount and resolution date were not disclosed in available reporting.