A second judge has recommended throwing out the bulk of charges against Ag-Mart, a tomato grower accused of endangering employees with pesticides in Florida and North Carolina.

An administrative law judge in Tampa, Fla., recommended last week that the Florida Department of Agriculture throw out all but seven of 78 pesticide violations against Ag-Mart.

In both states, agriculture officials say that Ag-Mart forced employees to work in fields freshly sprayed with pesticides, which can damage the nervous system and cause birth defects. The company sells tomatoes at grocery stores across the country under the brand names Santa Sweets and Ugly Ripe.

In the fall of 2005, the state Department of Agriculture charged the Florida company, which operates farms in Brunswick and Pender counties in North Carolina, with 369 violations of state pesticide law. The state tried to impose the largest fine in history, $184,500.

Those charges came on the heels of the Florida investigation.

Now, judges in both states have ruled that the cases were based largely on faulty evidence. In both states, the rulings are recommendations and the cases are not yet settled.

Similar N.C. decision

A North Carolina administrative law judge recommended in December that more than two-thirds of the 369 pesticide violations that state agriculture officials issued should be thrown out. Judge Beryl Wade said that, for the majority of the violations, the state could fine Ag-Mart a total of only $500. A hearing in the case is scheduled for May.

Ag-Mart officials say their company has been vindicated. They say the Florida ruling proves that the North Carolina case was also flawed.

"Florida started the whole thing," said Ag-Mart attorney David Stefany. "They took their misunderstanding and shared their analysis with North Carolina, who took it hook, line and sinker."

Jim Burnette, head of the N.C. Department of Agriculture's pesticide section, said Tuesday, "We wouldn't have gone forward if we didn't feel that our investigation led us to that conclusion."

Pesticide investigators in both states looked at Ag-Mart's work records, which show where workers were picking tomatoes, and spray records, which document the fields where pesticides were applied. Those documents, when cross-referenced, often placed workers in fields less than 48 hours after chemicals were sprayed, which is considered unsafe.

Ag-Mart, however, says it doesn't keep exact records of where employees work. It says the work records provided to the state were only educated guesses about where work occurred. They say they made that clear before they handed over the records.

The company also says its fields are so large that employees could be working in one area while pesticides are applied dozens of acres away.

In the Florida ruling, Judge Lawrence Stevenson said the Florida officials should have known that the conclusions drawn from the records were implausible. He recommended a fine of just over $11,000. Florida officials originally sought a $111,000 fine. The Florida agriculture commissioner will make the final determination in the case.