The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation has completed its investigation into Henry's Turkey Service and its alleged exploitation of mentally retarded processing-plant workers.

The agency's findings have been passed on to the Muscatine County attorney's office for review. Prosecutor Dana Christensen says the findings are contained in "about 15 pounds worth of reports" that he plans to examine in the weeks ahead.

More than eight months have passed since county, state and federal authorities descended on the eastern Iowa town of Atalissa and evacuated the aging bunkhouse where dozens of disabled workers had lived over the past 34 years.

The bunkhouse was shut down shortly after The Des Moines Register asked state regulators why 21 mentally retarded men were living in what appeared to be an unlicensed care facility or group home.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, the U.S. Department of Labor and other agencies have been looking into allegations that the Atalissa men were paid as little as 40 cents an hour for working in the West Liberty Foods plant.

In addition to their wages, the workers were given room and board in the 106-year-old Atalissa bunkhouse Henry's rented from the city. In recent years, the building was marked by boarded-up windows, roach infestation and a lack of central heating.

To date, no criminal charges have been filed in the case, and company officials have denied any wrongdoing.

In March, the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals alleged Henry's Turkey Service violated Iowa law by running the bunkhouse as an unlicensed care facility. The inspections department forwarded its findings to Muscatine County prosecutors.

Christensen said the county hasn't acted on that referral because of a desire to coordinate activities with federal authorities who are looking into other potential violations of federal law.

"We have some avenues of prosecution that are available to us at the state level that are not open to federal authorities, and vice versa," he said. "That's why my preference is to have a coordinated effort that has a sense of internal logic to it, and a sense of internal justice to it."

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