ATLANTA - Three former peanut company officials were found guilty on Friday in connection with a 2009 salmonella outbreak that killed nine people and sickened hundreds, federal prosecutors said.
The contamination at the Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, Georgia, led to one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history and forced the company into liquidation.
Three of the victims of salmonella poisoning were residents of long-term care or assisted living facilities in Brainerd. Doris Flatgard, 87, was a resident at Good Samaritan's Oakwood House on Greenwood Street; Shirley Mae Almer, 72, Perham, was a resident at Good Samaritan Society-Bethany; and Clifford Tousignant, 78, was a resident at Good Samaritan Society-Woodland.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 714 people were infected with salmonella in 46 states - 44 in Minnesota - after eating Peanut Corporation of America's King Nut brand of peanut butter. The CDC also reported the salmonella infection may have led to the deaths of nine people - one in Idaho, three in Minnesota, one in North Carolina, two in Ohio and two in Virginia.
Former Peanut Corporation of America company owner Stewart Parnell and his brother, Michael Parnell, a food broker who worked on behalf of the company, were found guilty of conspiracy, while Stewart Parnell and the plant's quality control manager, Mary Wilkerson, were found guilty of obstruction.
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Federal prosecutors have alleged the Parnell brothers covered up the presence of salmonella in the company's peanut products for years, going so far as to create fake certificates showing the products were uncontaminated even when laboratory results showed otherwise.
The Parnells were also both convicted of several counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and introducing misbranded food into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud or mislead.
The defendants will be sentenced at a later date.
Defense attorneys did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
