Jury retires in Albany PCA salmonella trial

Sept. 12--ALBANY -- The jury in the lengthy federal trial of Stewart Parnell, his brother Mike Parnell and Mary Wilkerson retired for deliberation Friday, following closing arguments by their defense and rebuttal from government attorneys.

The Parnells are charged with numerous counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, the introduction of adulterated and misbranded food into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud or mislead, and conspiracy.

Stewart Parnell is also charged with obstruction of justice, as is Wilkerson.

All charges stem from alleged unsanitary practices at the Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, as well as creation of fraudulent salmonella test certification. The government contends those actions led to a nationwide outbreak of salmonella beginning in December, 2008.

Friday's closing arguments in U.S. District Court in Albany began with Stewart Parnell's attorney, Tom Bondurant, reminding the jury that even though his client was co-owner of the company, Stewart Parnell and PCA are separate entities. Bondurant said the government had not proven that Parnell was aware of any scheme to falsify COAs (certificates of analysis) or that he had failed to act in good faith to his peanut clients.

"There were no laws then and no laws now that require testing for salmonella, or prohibit retesting for it," Bondurant said,"It's common practice (in the industry) to ship products before the COAs are available."

Bondurant attacked the government attorneys for their email evidence, which he said was incomplete and not in context. In a few cases, Bondurant showed the jury complete samples of the emails in question.

Bondurant also moved to minimize the impact of allegations of a leaking roof and rodent infestation by stating that peanuts were sealed in airtight, water proof bags.

"(The defendants) considered the product safe. They ate the peanuts," Bondurant said. "They took the peanut butter home to their families."

According to Bondurant, the "purse strings" of the business were controlled by unindicted co-owner David Royster. The attorney said Stewart Parnell approached Royster several times about repairing the roof, but nothing was ever done.

Bondurant also stated that former plant manager Dan Kilgore, who earlier pleaded guilty to similar charges, had lied during his testimony against Stewart Parnell and other defendants because "he didn't want to go to jail."

Following Bondurant's address to the jury, Michael Parnell's attorney, Edward Tolley, reminded jurors that though it was alleged that PCA had often shipped contaminated peanut paste to Kellogg's and had falsified COAs to that company, Kellogg's had never sued for damages.

Like Boundurant, Tolley said there was no legal requirement for salmonella testing. Until the about the time of the late 2009 outbreak, he said, it was not known that cooked peanuts could harbor salmonella.

"There are still no regulations on testing, no regulations for oven temperatures (to kill salmonella)," Tolley said.

Tolley charged that Kilgore was lying when he testified that Michael Parnell, a broker/buyer for Kellogg's, designed the peanut paste line at PCA. Tolley said the evidence showed it was actually Kilgore who designed the paste line.

Thomas Ledford, attorney for former PCA quality assurance employee Mary Wilkerson, attacked the government's contention that Wilkerson lied to FDA investigators when they inspected the plant in January 2009, and willfully kept from them the company's COA log book.

Ledford's address to the jury was followed by a one-hour rebuttal by U.S. Attorney Patrick Hearn.

U.S. District Court Judge Louis Sands said it was possible the jury may hold its first full day of deliberations on Saturday. If that is not the case, the first day of deliberations will be on Thursday, Sands said. The trial got under way Aug. 2.

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