Former PCA Execs Sentenced to Prison in Notorious Food-Safety Case

But it could have been worse for Samuel Lightsey and Daniel Kilgore, who both cut plea deals and served as witnesses in the 2014 trial of their former boss, PCA owner Stewart Parnell.

Josh Long, Associate editorial director, SupplySide Supplement Journal

October 2, 2015

2 Min Read
Former PCA Execs Sentenced to Prison in Notorious Food-Safety Case

On Oct. 1, a federal judge sentenced two former officials of the disgraced Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) to serve prison time.

But it could have been worse for Samuel Lightsey and Daniel Kilgore, who both cut plea deals and served as witnesses in the 2014 trial of their former boss, PCA owner Stewart Parnell.

The defunct PCA was tied to a 2009 outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium that sickened 714 persons in 46 states and left nine dead.

Lightsey, a former operations manager at PCA’s Blakely, Georgia plant, received a sentence of 36 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. W. Louis Sands, the federal judge who oversaw prosecutions against PCA executives, also sentenced PCA’s former operations manager Kilgore to serve 72 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release.

The “sentences are a just result," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer, head of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Division, in a statement. “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."

Last week, Sands sentenced Parnell to 28 years in prison in what marked the harshest sentence ever in a food-safety prosecution. A federal jury last September convicted PCA’s former owner of 67 criminal counts.

Prosecutors introduced evidence to show peanut executives mislead customers about the presence of Salmonella, fabricating documents that declared the products were free of pathogens when they hadn’t been tested or results revealed the food was tainted. The U.S. Attorney’s Office also said the PCA executives weren’t truthful with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials who had visited the company’s plant to investigate the outbreak.

 

About the Author

Josh Long

Associate editorial director, SupplySide Supplement Journal , Informa Markets Health and Nutrition

Josh Long directs the online news, feature and op-ed coverage at SupplySide Supplement Journal (formerly known as Natural Products Insider), which targets the health and wellness industry. He has been reporting on developments in the dietary supplement industry for over a decade, with a focus on regulatory issues, including at the Food and Drug Administration.

He has moderated and/or presented at industry trade shows, including SupplySide East, SupplySide West, Natural Products Expo West, NBJ Summit and the annual Dietary Supplement Regulatory Summit.

Connect with Josh on LinkedIn and ping him with story ideas at [email protected]

Education and previous experience

Josh majored in journalism and graduated from Arizona State University the same year "Jake the Snake" Plummer led the Sun Devils to the Rose Bowl against the Ohio State Buckeyes. He also holds a J.D. from the University of Wyoming College of Law, was admitted in 2008 to practice law in the state of Colorado and spent a year clerking for a state district court judge.

Over more than a quarter century, he’s written on various topics for newspapers and business-to-business publications – from the Yavapai in Arizona and a controversial plan for a nuclear-waste incinerator in Idaho to nuanced issues, including FDA enforcement of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA).

Since the late 1990s, his articles have been published in a variety of media, including but not limited to, the Cape Cod Times (in Massachusetts), Sedona Red Rock News (in Arizona), Denver Post (in Colorado), Casper Star-Tribune (in Wyoming), now-defunct Jackson Hole Guide (in Wyoming), Colorado Lawyer (published by the Colorado Bar Association) and Nutrition Business Journal.

Subscribe for the latest consumer trends, trade news, nutrition science and regulatory updates in the supplement industry!
Join 37,000+ members. Yes, it's completely free.

You May Also Like