Two PCA Operational Managers Sentenced to Time in the Big House

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.

PCA CEO Gets 28 Years in Prison for Selling Tainted Peanut Butter, QA Manager gets 5 Years

The CEO of PCA, Steward Parnell, received a 28 year prison sentence after being found guilty last September for  knowingly selling tainted peanut butter and falsifying records to deceive customers about the safety of that product.   His brother, Michael Parnell, the production supervisor, received a sentence of 20 years in prison, while the quality control manager, Mary Wilkerson, received a 5-year sentence for obstruction of justice.

While it is easy to focus on Mr. Parnell's sentence, you have to look at Mary Wilkerson, the 41 year old Quality Control Manager.  She started working at PCA as a receptionist and was promoted up to the role of Quality Control Manager.  Did she know better?  Did she have appropriate training?  Was she merely following orders?  Perhaps, but in the end, she was brought down with the owner for carrying out an act that caused people to get sick.  While she may not spend the entire 5 years in prison, it is still an awful cross to bear for an owner who reaped the benefits of running a shady business.

Her story goes to all the quality control, operations, and other supervisory personnel as a reminder that doing the wrong thing because someone told you to do it does not make it okay.

Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/former-peanut-executive-sentenced-to-28-years-in-prison-for-outbreak-that-killed-nine-people-sickened-hundreds/2015/09/21/aba7500e-60a7-11e5-8e9e-dce8a2a2a679_story.html

Former peanut executive sentenced to 28 years in prison
By Brady Dennis September 21 at 7:53 PM

Former peanut executive Stewart Parnell was sentenced Monday to 28 years in prison for his role in a nationwide salmonella outbreak that killed nine people and sickened hundreds in 2008 and 2009.

The sentence marked the most severe punishment ever for a food-related crime. Prosecutors had sought life in prison for the 61-year-old executive, and the sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge W. Louis Sands essentially could amount to that.

“These acts were driven simply by the desire to profit and to protect profits notwithstanding the known risks,” the judge said, according to the Associated Press. “This is commonly and accurately referred to as greed.”