Food Safety Should be Taken Seriously, Says Ron Simon, one of the food poisoning lawyers who handled many of the PCA cases.
Michael Parnel is 65 now, and serving a 20-year sentence (to be followed by three years of probation) at the low-security federal prison in Butner, North Carolina, for crimes related to the submitting of false salmonella tests for Peanut Corporation of America. Acting as food broker for PCA, his company P.S. Sales, transported the peanut products to Kellogg’s. He was convicted on 31 charges. His older brother Stewart Parnell, was the owner of the Blakely, Georgia headquartered PCA. He was sentenced to 336 months in prison, to be followed by another 3 years of probation, by Senior U.S. District Court Judge W. Louis Sands of the Middle District of Georgia.
The receptionist, office manager, and quality assurance officer, Mary Wilkerson, was sentenced to 5 years in prison and two additional years of probation. After serving her five-year term for obstruction of justice, she is the only one who is free at this time.
Parnell’s conviction and sentence have already been “affirmed” on appeal by the 11th Circuit, back in 2018, but now he is making a new appeal on what his lawyers contend is a “novel” issue that warrants oral argument. The issue resolves around the negative media and publicity surrounding the outbreak that sickened more than 700 and killed none. While Parnell’s lawyers were aware of the situation, they made an agreement that all parties would refrain from mentioning the deaths, in the hope of lessening any bias. Allegedly, two jurors with exposure the media prior to trial were allowed on the jury. The appeal to the 11th Circuit was made on May 26, 2023, and on Jan. 10, 2024, the appellate court issued a certificate to allow the appeal to progress.
According to one of the lawyers for the victims. Ron Simon, these jail sentences remind us every day how seriously we need to take food safety.
