Published 3:15 pm Thursday, February 15, 2024
Cody Easterday’s attorneys, seeking to shorten the ex-cattlemen’s sentence by almost three years, are asking U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian to focus on what Easterday did after his $244 million fraud was uncovered.
Easterday filed a brief Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington responding to prosecutors, who prefer dwelling on the size of the theft and are seeking to limit the sentence reduction to 11 months.
Bastian sentenced Easterday, 52, to an 11-year term. Easterday is eligible to have his sentence cut by between 11 and 35 months under retroactive sentencing guidelines adopted by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
His attorneys are seeking the maximum reduction, slicing the term to 8 years and one month. Prosecutors are arguing for the minimum reduction, resulting in a term of 10 years and one month.
The sides are 24 months apart. If free, Easterday could use those two years earning money to repay his victims, Tyson Fresh Meats and Segale Properties of Tukwila, Wash., according to the brief.
“Mr. Easterday has been, and continues to be, committed to rectifying his mistakes,” the brief reads.
Easterday supplied beef to Tyson’s plant in Pasco and billed for more than 265,000 head of nonexistent cattle, defrauding Tyson of $233 million. Segale was defrauded of $11 million by loaning Easterday funds to procure cattle.
Easterday worked tirelessly to sell his family’s Eastern Washington farming and ranching empire for as much money as possible, according to the brief. So far, Easterday has repaid $78.6 million, or almost one-third.
His attorneys also asked Bastian to consider his “exemplary behavior” at the federal prison in Lompoc, Calif. He has worked on the prison farm and taught inmates how to operate and repair farm equipment, the brief states.
Prosecutors acknowledge Easterday’s efforts to repay his debt and his good prison record, but call Easterday’s fraud massive and brazen and carried out over four years.
Easterday’s brief takes a swipe at Tyson, claiming Easterday was bound to Tyson by a “predatory feeding agreement.”
To compensate, the brief claims, Easterday, also driven by a gambling addition, speculated in commodity trading and ran up losses. He defrauded Tyson to cover the losses and life became a “desperate and addictive circle.”
Efforts to obtain comment from Tyson were unsuccessful.
After his sentencing, Easterday sued Tyson, alleging the company violated antitrust laws by abusing its position as the dominant cattle buyer in the Northwest. Bastian dismissed the lawsuit.
Another Easterday lawsuit alleged Tyson reneged on an oral contract to share profits from selling “Cody’s Beef” in Japan. Bastian also found that lawsuit meritless. Easterday has appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Easterday’s attorneys are seeking a sentence-reduction hearing in front of Bastian, in which Easterday could participate by video or phone.
Prosecutors argue a court hearing is not necessary and that Bastian can rule based on the written arguments.
Easterday’s release date is currently in November 2031.
