Melon growers make plea deal
Jensen brothers had pleaded “not guilty” in listeria case
The brothers who owned a Colorado cantaloupe farm behind a 2011 listeria epidemic that killed 33 people have entered a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, according to court documents.
Eric and Ryan Jensen, ages 37 and 33, separately gave notices they will change their initial “not guilty” plea at a hearing scheduled for Oct. 22, according to notices filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Denver.
The brothers, charged with six federal misdemeanor counts of introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce, did not indicate what the plea agreement with prosecutors entails.
Their lawyers did not respond to requests for details.
The misdemeanors each have penalties of up to a year in prison and $250,000 for each brother. Food-safety experts said it is difficult to predict what final penalties the plea deals might involve because food-safety violations in the United States are so rarely prosecuted as crimes.
The 2011 listeria epidemic was one of the nation’s deadliest outbreaks of a foodborne illness. Colorado and federal investigators quickly matched listeria cases to contamination on the Jensens’ farm in southeastern Colorado and said they had made changes to their harvesting system that promoted the spread of bacteria.
Prosecutors said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the Jensens used the wrong equipment to sort melons and eliminated a crucial sanitizing step.
The Jensens’ attorneys have said their clients cooperated with investigators fromthe beginning and feel great sympathy for the llisteria victims. Prosecutors decided not to charge them with more serious felonies, which food-safety experts have said would require proof the Jensens knew their produce was contaminated or knew their actions were dangerous.
The Jensens have already discussed their limited financial resources in court. They filed bankruptcy after the outbreak and assigned their insurance money to a compensation pool created for victims who have sued them and others in the food chain.
The men were released on $100,000 unsecured bonds after their initial not-guilty pleas on Sept. 26. Jensen attorneys said one of the brothers’ net worth was down to a small amount of home equity.
Prosecutors said people in 28 states ate the cantaloupe and 147 people were hospitalized. In addition to the 33 official deaths, the listeria caused amiscarriage, and more patientswho had the illness died of various causes months after the outbreak.