One year and two days after a federal jury found them guilty, three defendants associated with the most deadly and expensive foodborne disease outbreak to occur so far this century will be sentenced in a courtroom in Albany, GA. U.S. District Court Judge W. Louis Sands, who has presided over the criminal proceedings since…
Judge Admonishes Stewart Parnell’s Mother for Outburst
ALBANY, GA—Stewart Parnell’s mother decided to use a courtroom break on Thursday to verbally confront a female FBI agent coming out of a stall in the women’s bathroom on the third floor of the C.B. King Courthouse in Albany, GA. The approach was not welcomed. The agent, who appeared to be unarmed, was present to…
Deaths Linked to PCA Peanut Butter May Finally Be Talked About in Open Court
ALBANY, GA—United States of America v. Stewart Parnell et al began 346 weeks ago when food safety cops on the beat first identified an unusual multistate cluster of Salmonella Typhimurium. It would become the most deadly outbreak of foodborne illness experienced in the 21st century so far and among the top 10 of the…
Letter From the Editor: A Trial That Was Far More Than Good Enough
No criminal trial is perfect. While it’s been difficult to wait for the past eight months, we are now confident that the trial of the United States of America v. Stewart Parnell et al was close enough to perfection to easily pass muster. Senior federal Judge W. Louis Sands used that extra time to do…
Convictions Upheld in Peanut Corporation of America Case
Post-trial motions for acquittal, dismissal, or, in the alternative, a new trial filed by defendants Stewart Parnell, Michael Parnell, and Mary Wilkerson have all been denied by U.S. District Court Judge W. Louis Sands. As many as 14 motions, sealed until now, were settled by the judge’s ruling on Thursday, although defense attorneys for the…
PCA Defense Attorney Calls Page in FDA Agent’s Diary ‘Suspect’
A forensic expert should be hired by the court to determine if a page in a U.S. Food and Drug Administration agent’s diary was tampered with before last summer’s trial of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) executives. That’s the latest request from court-appointed defense attorney Thomas G. Ledford, who represents Mary Wilkerson, the former manager…
DOJ: Wilkerson’s Move for Acquittal in PCA Trial Isn’t New and It’s Too Late
Government attorneys have roared back at the former quality control manager for a Blakely, GA, peanut processing plant who claims she was wrongly convicted of obstruction of justice. Mary Wilkerson wants a federal judge to grant her an acquittal for the crime a jury convicted her of last September. But U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)…
Acquittal Motion Thickens Plot as PCA Post-Trial Wait Continues
A two-month break in post-trial action in the criminal prosecution of former Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) executives ended Thursday with more than 50 pages being filed in support of an acquittal for defendant Mary Wilkerson. Wilkerson, quality control manager for the Blakely, GA, peanut processing plant that was the source of contamination in a…
Attorneys Substituted on Stewart Parnell’s Defense Team
One of Stewart Parnell’s many attorneys has withdrawn as counsel in the Peanut Corporation of America criminal case now approaching the second anniversary of its original criminal indictment. According to court documents, Atlanta-based attorneys William B. Hill Jr. and Alexander J. Bartko, have notified the court that the national firm of Polsinelli P.C. is no…
Holding Guilty Accountable in PCA Case Taking Time
After the jury verdicts came in for the Peanut Corporation of American criminal trial two months ago, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the trial in Albany, GA, showed how “any individual or company that puts the health of consumers at risk by criminally selling tainted food will be caught, prosecuted, and held accountable to…
Government: Plenty of Evidence Backs Up Wilkerson Guilty Verdict
Mary Wilkerson, who was first hired in 2002 to answer the phones and then worked her way up in March 2008 to being manager of quality assurance at Peanut Corporation of America’s Blakely, GA processing plant, was the only company employee to go to trial alongside the Parnell brothers. A federal jury in Albany, GA…