School Official Convicted After Students Ate Chicken With Bits of Metal
In late 2016, Somma Food Group had a problem with its chicken tenders.
New York City schools had stopped serving the savory poultry gobbets after people found foreign objects inside them. A school employee choked on a bone inside one of the supposedly boneless tenders. Then there were the reports about pieces of metal.
So, federal prosecutors said, the owners of Texas-based Somma — Blaine Iler, Michael Turley and Brian Twomey — turned for help to a senior Department of Education food official with whom they had been secretly doing business.
The owners promised tens of thousands of dollars to the official, Eric Goldstein, along with control of a second food provider called Range Meats Supply Company, prosecutors said. The tenders were soon restored to school menus, where they remained for a few months before being removed permanently. There had been new complaints that they contained metal, bones and now bits of plastic.
On Wednesday, a jury in Brooklyn convicted Mr. Goldstein of conspiracy, extortion, wire fraud and taking bribes, agreeing with prosecutors who said that he had abused his official position. After the verdict was delivered, Mr. Goldstein, sitting in the well of the courtroom next to his lawyers, rested his head in his hands and stared down at the defense table.
Source: The New York Times