-Caveat Lector- [Tenorlove's comment: The people who decided to keep the production line running while the a/c unit was being replaced, instead of putting the foodstuffs away until the mess was cleaned up and work surfaces sanitized, deserve a special place in the Stupid Idiot's Hall of Shame.] > Ball Park Franks Fiasco: 21 Dead, $200,000 Fine > By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > > Let us now have a moment of silence for the victims of the Ball Park > Franks fiasco. > > Thank you. > > This is the situation: Bil Mar Foods is a unit of the Chicago-based > giant > Sara Lee Corporation, the maker of pound cakes, cheesecakes, pies, > muffins, L'Eggs, Hanes, Playtex and Wonderbra products -- your > typical > food and underwear conglomerate. > > Bil Mar makes hot dogs -- Ball Park franks hot dogs. You've seen them > when > you go to a baseball game at Tiger Stadium in Detroit and elsewhere. > > Last month, Sara Lee pled guilty to two misdemeanor counts in > connection > with a listeriosis outbreak that led to the deaths of at least 21 > consumers who ate Ball Park Franks hot dogs and other meat products. > One > hundred people were seriously injured. The company paid a $200,000 > fine. > > According to Kenneth Moll, a Chicago attorney representing the > families of > the victims, this is what happened: > > Bil Mar has a hot dog facility in Zeeland, Michigan. The company shut > down > the facility over the July 4th weekend of 1998 to replace a > refrigeration > unit that was above the hot processing facility. The hot dogs are > heated > at one end and sent down a conveyer belt to the other. > > Moll's theory is that the removal of the air conditioning unit and > its > replacement dislodged some dangerous bacteria in the ceiling. When > the > plant reopened, steam from the passing hot dogs went up to the > ceiling, > condensed and dripped back down with the dangerous bacteria onto the > hot > dogs. > > In November 1998, Paul Mead from the Centers for Disease Control > (CDC) in > Atlanta started receiving calls from the state health departments > around > the country that had isolated strains of a deadly bacteria, Listeria > monocytogenes. > > Mead looked at the bacteria and found that they were the same strain. > He > sent out questionnaires and discovered there was an open package of > hot > dogs in the home of one of the people who died. The CDC tested the > hot > dogs and isolated the same bacterial strain -- a DNA fingerprint of > the > type of bacteria. > > According to Moll, Mead went to the Bil Mar plant in Zeeland, > Michigan and > tested unopened packages of hot dogs and was able to isolate the same > DNA > fingerprint bacteria. In December 1998, Sara Lee ordered a recall of > millions of pounds of hot dogs and deli meats. > > According to a series of reports in the Detroit Free Press, plant > workers > were regularly testing work surfaces for the presence of cold-loving > bacteria -- a class of bacteria that includes the deadly Listeria > monocytogenes as well as some harmless bacteria. > > According to the Free Press, beginning in July 1998, after the > replacement > of the old refrigeration unit, workers recorded a sharp increase in > the > presence of cold-loving bacteria. The number of positive samples > remained > high until the company stopped performing tests in November 1998 -- a > month before the Sara Lee recall. > > "Sara Lee was doing testing of the environment in the plant for > cold-loving bacteria," said Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for > Science in the Public Interest. "Then their tests started coming up > positive, so they stopped testing. They knew they had a problem with > bacteria in the plant. But instead of solving it, they chose to > ignore > it." > > This is crucial, because if the company knew that they were had a > Listeria > monocytogenes problem and ignored it, they could be hit with a felony > conviction. And felony convictions have all kinds of collateral > consequences, including possible loss of federal contracts -- Sara > Lee had > a big hot dog contract with the Department of Defense. > > In an interview, U.S. Attorney Phillip Green said there was > insufficient > evidence to bring a felony charge. > > "There was simply no evidence that Sara Lee Bil Mar knew that the > food > product that they were producing and shipping out was adulterated > with > Listeria monocytogenes," Green told us. > > When asked about the allegations raised by the Free Press that the > company > was testing for cold-loving bacteria, Green told us, "the testing > that you > are referring to is known as Low Temperature Pathogens testing -- > that is > a very general test that does not necessarily indicate the presence > of > Listeria monocytogenes." > > "The USDA regulations don't require a plant to conduct testing on > finished > product for the presence of deadly pathogens such as Listeria > monocytogenes," Green said. "And Bil Mar was following accepted > industry > practices in conducting general testing for the low temperature > pathogens." > > But Green refused to answer specific questions about evidence > concerning a > possible felony violation. > > Moll -- the attorney representing the victims -- told us that the > evidence > "does necessarily indicate the presence of Listeria monocytogenes." > The > CDC's Mead found studies showing that, had Sara Lee done further > testing > for the deadly strain of listeria, almost half of the cold-loving > bacteria > could have tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes. > > But U.S. Attorney Green never read Mead's report. He never called on > Mead, > perhaps the crucial expert in this case, to testify before the grand > jury. > > In fact, it is apparent from our investigation into this matter that > federal prosecutors were overpowered by Sara Lee's outside lawyers in > this > case -- the Chicago firm of Jenner & Block, led by former Chicago > U.S. > Attorney Anton Valukas. > > Valukas refused, on advice of his client, to speak with us. > > But the extraordinary degree of the collaboration between Sara Lee > and the > federal prosecutors in this case can be seen on Sara Lee's web site > where > it has posted a "joint press release." > > No, that's not a typo. The U.S. Attorney and Sara Lee issued a joint > press > release announcing the plea agreement in which no mention is made of > Ball > Park Franks hot dogs. > > The issuance of a joint press release is an extraordinary event. U.S. > Attorney Green can't name a case where the prosecutor and convict > issued a > joint press release announcing their plea agreement. Neither can the > current chief of the Criminal Division at the Department of Justice, > Michael Chertoff. He calls it "unusual." > > In a number of ways, the Sara Lee prosecution brings home the double > standards in our criminal justice system. > > A company pleads guilty to a crime that leads to the death of 21 > human > beings. The company pleads to two misdemeanors. The company is fined > $200,000. Think about that. > > We were so outraged by this that we went over to the White House and > asked > President Bush's press secretary about it. > > We laid out the facts of the Sara Lee case and then asked our > question. > This is how it went: > > Question: Ari, has the President expressed a view on the death > penalty for > corporate criminals -- that is, revoking the charter of a corporation > that > has been convicted of a crime that has resulted in death? > > Fleischer: � The President does not weigh in on those matters of > justice. > They should not be dictated by decisions made at the White House. > > Question: Now, Ari, wait a second. Ari, Ari, wait a second. He's in > favor > of the death penalty for individuals generally. Is he in favor of the > death penalty for corporations convicted of crimes that result in > death? > > Fleischer: � These are questions that are handled by officials of the > Justice Department -- not by people at the White House. > > Someday, Ari, the White House too will have to answer -- why death to > individual criminals, but not to your corporate criminal paymasters? > > > Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate > Crime > Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based > Multinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: > The > Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: > Common > Courage Press, 1999). > > (c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > > _______________________________________________ > > Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell > Mokhiber > and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to > friends or > repost the column on other lists. 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