Sentences were handed down for the two operational managers involved in the PCA Salmonella outbreak case. Operations Manager Samuel Lightsey, 50, will serve three years in prison while Daniel Kilgore, 46, another ex-manager at the plant, will serve six. Because they agreed to testify against the owner, Steward Parnell (who received a 28 years), their sentences were shorter as part of the plea bargain agreement.
Like the Quality Manager, these two operations managers who were probably just following orders, may have never considered the implications associated with positive Salmonella test results for the product. Or the fact much of their product was destined for high risk individuals as part of thief foodservice sales. Easy to justify since the owner didn't seem to worry...it was just another day of making and shipping product that may or may not have a little Salmonella. In the end, it was a big deal. And unfortunately for these pawns, they will be spending time in the big house.
Think about it.....one of them picking up the phone and dialing the FDA about the positive results would have saved them, all the consumers who had gotten sick, and provided it was early on, would have limited impact to the owner and his company. Or hell, if they had only put forth the effort to clean the damn plant to rid the source of contamination.
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/10/01/lenient-sentences-ex-officials-salmonella-outbreak/73149204/
Lenient sentences for ex-officials in salmonella outbreak
Kevin McCoy, USA TODAY 2:50 p.m. EDT October 1, 2015
Two ex-officials of Peanut Corporation of America drew lenient sentences Thursday for their self-admitted roles in a salmonella outbreak blamed for killing nine and sickening hundreds.
Georgia U.S. District Court Judge W. Louis Sands sentenced Samuel Lightsey, 50, a former operations manager at the peanut firm's Blakely, Ga. plant, to serve three years in prison. Daniel Kilgore, 46, another ex-manager at the plant, drew a six-year sentence from the judge.
Sands allowed them to remain free, pending voluntary surrender after the U.S. Bureau of Prisons designates the correctional facilities where they will serve their sentences.
Both reached plea agreements with prosecutors that limited their punishment when they pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, along with sale of misbranded and adulterated food.
They later testified as government witnesses during the 2014 federal trial that ended with criminal convictions of ex-Peanut corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell and two other former top executives.
The case stemmed from findings by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that traced a national salmonella outbreak to the Parnell firm's peanut roasting plant in Blakely. The incident sickened 714 people in 46 states and may have contributed to nine deaths, the CDC reported.
The illnesses erupted in January 2009 and prompted one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history.
Parnell, 61, was sentenced to a virtual life term — 28 years behind bars — on Sept. 21. His brother, Michael Parnell, received a 20-year term, and former quality control manager Mary Wilkerson, drew a five-year sentence.
Sands ordered the Parnell brothers to surrender immediately, denying defense arguments that they should be permitted to remain free on bond pending appeals of their convictions.
Government evidence presented at the trial established that Lightsey and Kilgore knowingly helped the top executives fabricate certificates of analysis in a scheme that falsely showed peanut butter from the Blakely plant was free of salmonella and other pathogens. In fact, there had been no testing of the product, or tests had confirmed contamination, prosecutors showed.
Parnell, 61, was sentenced to a virtual life term — 28 years behind bars — on Sept. 21. His brother, Michael Parnell, received a 20-year term, and former quality control manager Mary Wilkerson, drew a five-year sentence.
Sands ordered the Parnell brothers to surrender immediately, denying defense arguments that they should be permitted to remain free on bond pending appeals of their convictions.
Government evidence presented at the trial established that Lightsey and Kilgore knowingly helped the top executives fabricate certificates of analysis in a scheme that falsely showed peanut butter from the Blakely plant was free of salmonella and other pathogens. In fact, there had been no testing of the product, or tests had confirmed contamination, prosecutors showed.
Although criminal justice officials said Lightsey and Kilgore merited punishment, they cited the former managers' cooperation and trial testimony as factors to be considered at sentencing. Benjamin Mizer, head of the Department of Justice's Civil Division, characterized Thursday's sentences as "a just result."
"They reflect the roles that the defendants played in these terrible acts, their acceptance of responsibility for those roles and their willingness to assist the government, albeit after the fact, in ensuring that all of those who engaged in criminal activity were held accountable," Mizer said in a statement issued after the sentencings.
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