Egg executives get jail sentences, fines for salmonella outbreak
A former owner of an egg company and his son were sentenced to three months in jail on Monday after pleading guilty in connection with a salmonella outbreak.
Austin “Jack” DeCoster, 81,and his son, Peter DeCoster, 51,were sentenced to jail and ordered to each pay a $100,000 fine, report the Associated Press and the Portland Press Herald. The sentence followed their guilty plea to to shipping adulterated food into interstate commerce.
Their company, Quality Egg, paid a $6.8 million fine after admitting workers shipped eggs with false expiration dates and bribed an inspector. A press release is here.
During the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett of Sioux City, Iowa, said he believed there was a “litany of shameful conduct” that occurred under the executives’ watch. The federal government has linked 1,939 illnesses to the salmonella outbreak.
The elder DeCoster told Bennett he wasn’t worried about the sentence, according to the AP account. “God is the one I’m worried about,” Jack DeCoster said. “You can throw me in jail, your honor. That’s all you can do to me. I’ve got to meet up with God one day.”
