LITTLE ROCK — Oklahoma's lawsuit against seven poultry companies with operations in Arkansas is expected to take eight weeks. Lawyers and expert witnesses have been preparing for the trial for years.JUDGEGreg Frizzell: The Wichita, Kan., native spent 10 years as a state court judge before being nominated in 2007 by President George W. Bush to fill a district judge's seat. His father, Kent Frizzell, was Kansas attorney general from 1969-71.
PLAINTIFF'S ATTORNEYSDrew Edmondson: Elected attorney general in 1994, Edmondson announced earlier this year that he wants to be Oklahoma's next governor. The Muskogee, Okla., native's father, Ed Edmondson, was a congressman.
Fred Baker: Part of the Motley Rice law firm in South Carolina that helped the nation's attorneys general obtain a $246 billion settlement in 1998 from four U.S. tobacco producers, Baker has helped with several of the firm's environmental contamination cases. Louis Bullock: The Oklahoma State University graduate has been an attorney for 30 years.
He represented black police officers in a class-action federal lawsuit against Tulsa, accusing the city of discrimination.
PLAINTIFF EXPERTSC. Robert Taylor: The Auburn University agricultural economics professor is a frequent critic of the poultry industry. He claims the poultry companies have known for years about the environmental harm created by bird manure.
Berton Fisher: A geologist who owns a Tulsa company called Lithochimeia. He is expected to testify that the watershed's cracked limestone karst geology makes it possible for contaminants such as fecal bacteria to move from farm fields into groundwater.
Bernard Engel: The head of the agricultural and biological engineering department at Purdue University in Indiana, he claimed during a hearing last year that farmers who raise chickens for Tyson Foods produce 163,000 of the 345,000 tons of manure in the Illinois River watershed.
DEFENDANTS' ATTORNEYSJohn Elrod: The Siloam Springs native, who represents Simmons Foods, was a kindergarten classmate of Mark Simmons, the company's chairman and founder's son. He is the attorney for the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport and played a central role in the legal process of obtaining most of its land.
Robert George: After 10 years with two private law firms, George joined the Tyson Foods legal department in 2008. George, who is expected to give Tyson's opening statement on Thursday, helped convince a jury earlier this year that Tyson Foods and other companies weren't at fault for a Prairie Grove man's leukemia.
Woody Bassett: Bassett represents defendant George's Inc. Bassett frequently represents University of Arkansasathletes in legal matters, and he helped defend his brother-in-law, Tyson Foods executive Archie Schaffer III. In 1998, Schaffer was convicted of illegally trying to influence the policies of U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy.
Thomas, C. Green: The Sidley Austin law firm's attorney attorney should play a key role representing Tyson Foods. In 2003, Green led the trial team that convinced a federal jury to acquit Tyson Foods and three of its managers of conspiring to bring illegal immigrants to work in poultry processing plants.
DEFENSE EXPERTSTim Sullivan: The president of E&S Environmental Restoration Inc. of Corvallis, Ore., testified for the poultry companies last year in an injunction hearing to ban poultry-litter spreading in the Illinois River watershed. He claims Oklahoma is unable to link poultry litter to contaminated water.
Billy Clay: The veterinarian and Oklahoma State University adjunct professor testified last year thatthere's 10 times more cow manure dropped in the Illinois River watershed than poultry manure.
Cows produce 1.18 million tons of manure, Clay said.
PHOTOS: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Tulsa World file photos Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Front Section, Pages 7 on 09/23/2009