Marler Blog : Food Poisoning Lawyer & Attorney : Bill Marler : Marler Clark

As the Post-Dispatch reported on February 25, a manager for a warehouse and transportation company in Madison admitted last month to illegally ordering that boxes of chicken be labeled and shipped without proper inspection - including some sent to a school in Joliet, Ill., where dozens of people fell ill.

Edward L. Wuebbels, the manager at Lanter Co., which was under contract with the Illinois State Board of Education to store and ship school lunches, pleaded guilty in federal court in East St. Louis of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Department of Agriculture and making false statements. He will face a sentence estimated at 24 to 30 months in prison.

According to court documents, the problem began Nov. 19, 2001, with an ammonia leak at the St. Louis warehouse of Gateway Cold Storage. Officials believed that the chicken, in sealed plastic, could be repackaged and relabeled without harm to consumers.

But Wuebbels asked Gateway to ship the product to Lanter, and ordered employees there to do the repackaging and relabeling even though it is not an approved inspection site. As a result, the product was not properly inspected.

From 300 to 600 boxes were shipped, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Norman Smith. Most were not affected by the ammonia. But a shipment to Laraway Elementary School in Joliet had been contaminated and was prepared on Nov. 25, 2002, officials said.

When it was cooked, there was a smell of ammonia in the air, Smith said.

An estimated 170 people who ate the chicken complained of stomach aches, and 60 went to hospitals. Most were treated and released; none was permanently injured.

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Stephanie Banchero of the Chicago Tribune reported on October 9 that, in an unusual move, federal authorities have indicted a Downstate man on felony charges of conspiracy, transporting uninspected poultry and lying to federal authorities in a 2002 food poisoning incident that sickened more than 100 children and teachers at a Joliet school.

Edward L. Wuebbels of Albers is the third person to be criminally charged in one of the state's largest school food poisoning outbreaks. Wuebbels could get up to 16 years in prison if convicted on the six felony counts.

Two Illinois State Board of Education employees were indicted last year in the incident at Laraway Elementary School, which sent three dozen pupils to the hospital after they ate ammonia-tainted chicken tenders. Those misdemeanor cases are pending.

Bill Marler, a Seattle lawyer who has represented hundreds of children and families in lawsuits over food-borne illnesses, called the indictments "very unusual, but very welcome."

"It's about time someone cracked down on these people," said Marler, whose firm represented 35 pupils and teachers at Laraway School in a civil case that recently was settled for an undisclosed amount. "It is so rare that these people get charged. But in this case, I think it was so egregious that the government had no choice. I applaud them and wish we would see more of this."

The November 2002 incident at Laraway began when dozens of students ate a school lunch of chicken tenders and green beans. The children immediately began complaining of nausea and some vomited. A strong odor of ammonia was detected in the cafeteria.

The discovery of that the chicken was tainted, which Illinois health officials said showed ammonia contamination of up to 133 times the acceptable level, sent state education officials scurrying to gather up 360 cases of chicken tenders sent to 49 public schools, including 11 in the Chicago area.

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