Owner of Stearns County dairy farm criminally charged with wage theft, racketeering

A state investigation into worker exploitation at a Stearns County dairy farm has now resulted in felony charges, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced on Tuesday.

Keith Lawrence Schaefer, the owner of Evergreen Acres Dairy in Paynesville, is charged with four counts of wage theft of more than $5,000 and one count of racketeering.

Ellison’s office brought civil action against the same dairy farm last year, alleging unpaid wages and unsanitary on-site housing conditions for farm workers. At the time, investigators had found upwards of $3 million in wage theft between withheld paychecks, docked hours and unpaid overtime.

A criminal complaint filed in Stearns County on Monday outlines four consecutive six-month periods from 2022-23 in which Schaefer reportedly stole $5,000 in wages or more.

Investigators found Schaefer often did not pay out employees’ final paychecks; in one case, an outgoing employee never received an estimated $3,000 he was owed for 204 hours worked in his last pay period. Schaefer is also accused of repeatedly shorting workers on their paychecks and resorting to intimidation when confronted with payroll issues.

Multiple workers reported Schaefer threatening to kill them or send them to Mexico, and Schaefer told employees he would fire them if they didn’t work through injury and illness.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension led the criminal investigation.

Schaefer was charged via summons and is due to appear in court on March 17.