ALBANY, Ga. (AP) – A federal jury convicted the owner of a peanut plant and two others Friday in a salmonella outbreak that prompted one of the largest U.S. food recalls ever, sickened hundreds across the country and was linked to several deaths.
Experts say the seven-week trial in Albany, Georgia, marked the first time corporate executives and plant workers were tried in a food poisoning case.
Former Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell was convicted on numerous counts including conspiracy, wire fraud and obstruction of justice related to shipping tainted peanut butter to customers and faking results of lab tests intended to screen for salmonella. His brother, Michael Parnell, was also found guilty on multiple charges related to the false lab results, but was acquitted of actually shipping salmonella-tainted food.
The jury also found Mary Wilkerson, the plant’s quality assurance manager, guilty of obstruction of justice for hiding information about the plant’s salmonella problems from investigator. But Wilkerson was acquitted on one of two obstruction counts she faced.
The case has been closely followed by the food industry and could rattle some executives, said Bill Marler, an attorney who has represented victims of food-borne illnesses for two decades, including many who got sick after eating Peanut Corporation’s food.