Kentucky Landscape Contractor Sentenced for Employing Illegal Aliens

Dean A. Hedges, owner of Hedges Landscape Specialists in Crestwood, Ky., was sentenced to 5 years probation for employing illegal aliens.

Hedges, 49, was sentenced in United States District Court and was fined $24,000. His company was fined. He and the company previously agreed to forfeit $147,813 as part of the criminal punishment.

Hedges, who pled guilty in October, admitted that from September 2006 to September 2007, he, through his company, Hedges Landscape Specialists, knowingly employed at least 12 illegal aliens (a felony offense), and that he engaged in a pattern or practice of knowingly hiring illegal aliens (a misdemeanor offense).

A former employee told agents that during his/her employ, it was common knowledge that illegal aliens were employed by Dean Hedges to work for Exterior Designs and Performance Irrigation, and that illegal alien employees were a subclass of employees. The illegal alien employees were treated differently than the employees documented or authorized to work in the United States. For example, the illegal employees were paid a flat rate no matter how many hours they worked during the week.

A previously filed search warrant affidavit indicates that agents of the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were contacted by former employees of the business and alerted that illegal aliens were being employed by Hedges.

One employee told ICE agents that during the time he/she worked for Hedges, Hedges knowingly and openly employed illegal aliens to work for his company, estimating that Hedges seasonally employed anywhere from ten to fifteen illegal aliens during the spring months through late June and early July, and that the business would pick up again during the fall planting season. The former employee said that, at the direction of Hedges, he/she was ordered to pay the illegal aliens on approximately twenty to twenty-five occasions in cash “under the table” for work they performed as employees of Hedges Landscape Specialists.

The same former employee stated that during his/her employment with Dean Hedges, he/she had several discussions with Hedges about completing Employment Eligibility or I-9 Forms on the company's employees. Hedges indicated he was not worried and “would just pay a fine” if he were ever caught by authorities. The former employee indicated that some I-9 forms were completed for documented workers, but not for illegal aliens.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Madison T. Sewell, and it was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Wednesday, February 20, 2008