While a number of jurors were dismissed because a two-month trial would create hardships for them, a 12-member jury and six alternates were selected on July 31, 2014, and opening statements began the next day in the criminal prosecution of former Peanut Corp. of America (PCA) owner Stewart Parnell, his brother Michael Parnell and the company’s quality control manager Mary Wilkerson. United States v. Parnell, 13-cr-12 (M.D. Ga.). Earlier in the week, the court denied Wilkerson’s motion to dismiss or alternatively for a continuance and severance and to compel meaningful discovery. She claimed that the government’s discovery disclosures “were not accompanied by easily searchable databases” and that she was not timely provided a password to access one of two discovery disclosures. The court had apparently considered some of these issues previously and found that “Wilkerson has not demonstrated any changed circumstances that would require the Court to reconsider its referenced…
Category Archives 11th Circuit
Finding no U.S. jurisdiction, the Eleventh Circuit has dismissed multidistrict litigation against Chiquita alleging the company was liable for aiding and abetting torture and war crimes by paying a paramilitary group for security. Cardona v. Chiquita Brands Int’l, No. 12-14898 (11th Cir., order entered July 24, 2014). Relatives of alleged victims of the paramilitary group filed actions against Chiquita in 2010 and 2011. Additional information on the litigation appears in Issues 342, 345 and 387 of this Update. A district court denied Chiquita’s motion to dismiss but the Eleventh Circuit has reversed this decision, relying on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, 133 S. Ct. 1659 (2013). As in Kiobel, “[t]here is no allegation that any torture occurred on U.S. territory, or that any other act constituting a tort in terms of the [Alien Tort Statute (ATS)] touched or concerned the territory of the United States with…
A federal court in Georgia has delayed until July 28, 2014, the criminal proceedings against Stewart Parnell, former owner of the Peanut Corp. of America, which was implicated in a 2008-2009 nationwide Salmonella outbreak that sickened hundreds and led to at least nine deaths. United States v. Parnell, No. 13-cr-12 (M.D. Ga., order entered July 11, 2014). The defendants, including former vice president of sales Michael Parnell and former quality assurance manager Mary Wilkerson, had argued that they did not have time to review some 100,000 documents produced by the prosecution just days before the original July 14 trial date. The court refused to dismiss the 76-count felony indictment as an alternative remedy. Meanwhile, the court is also considering whether a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official should be allowed to testify during the trial, indicating that it would conduct a Daubert hearing to determine whether the testimony of CDC…
A federal court in Georgia has entered a number of orders in criminal proceedings, expected to go to trial July 14, 2014, against the former owner of the Peanut Corp. of America, implicated in a 2008-2009 nationwide Salmonella outbreak that sickened hundreds and led to at least nine deaths; among the orders was one denying the prosecution’s request for a psychiatric examination of Stewart Parnell. United States v. Parnell, No. 13-cr-12 (U.S. Dist. Ct., M.D. Ga., Albany Div., order entered July 10, 2014). Details about the criminal indictment appear in Issue 472 of this Update. While Parnell’s expert, whose testimony as to the defendant’s purported ADHD condition has been excluded, described Parnell as “fidgety, restless, excitable,” the court apparently found that this testimony did not otherwise indicate that Parnell would be unable to focus at trial. “Even if Stewart Parnell has an attention deficit disorder, Dr. Conley testified he is…
Following a hearing on the admissibility of expert testimony proffered as to Stewart Parnell’s ability to form the intent to commit alleged crimes arising from a national Salmonella outbreak linked to the Peanut Corp. of America, the company he formerly owned, a federal court in Georgia has excluded the expert, finding his testimony unhelpful and lacking a link to the criminal allegations. United States v. Parnell, No. 13-12 (U.S. Dist. Ct., M.D. Ga., Albany Div., order entered June 24, 2014). Details about the criminal charges appear in Issue 472 of this Update. Clinical psychologist Joseph Conley would have testified that Parnell has an Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder condition that was so severe he likely never read, nor understood the significance of, many of the emails on which the government’s case relies. According to the court, “Dr. Conley’s testimony is a ‘diminished capacity defense’ designed to show that Parnell did not…
A federal magistrate in Florida has denied the plaintiffs’ request in multidistrict litigation challenging marketing claims that DHA Omega-3-fortified milk supports brain health to reconsider an earlier order excluding the testimony of their expert. In re Horizon Organic Milk Plus DHA Omega-3 Mktg. & Sales Practice Litig., MDL No. 2324 (S.D. Fla., order entered June 17, 2014). Details about the magistrate’s ruling excluding the plaintiffs’ expert appear in Issue 522 of this Update. The magistrate rejected the plaintiffs’ arguments for their failure to raise them when the motion to exclude the evidence was before him and determined that an intervening U.S. Food and Drug Administration final nutrient content rule on DHA is not new evidence and does not address the ground on which the magistrate struck the expert—his failure to show how the studies on which he relied could be extrapolated to cover the broad class of product purchasers. Issue…
A federal court in Georgia presiding over the criminal case filed against the former owner of the Peanut Corp. of America, implicated in a nationwide Salmonella outbreak in 2009, has denied Stewart Parnell’s motion to seal an exhibit that the government intends to introduce as Rule 404(b) evidence— that evidence pertaining to crimes, wrongs or other acts. United States v. Parnell, No. 13-12 (U.S. Dist. Ct., M.D. Ga., Albany Div., order entered June 13, 2014). Details about the criminal charges appear in Issue 472 of this Update. Parnell claimed that the evidence, an email, is “highly prejudicial” and would taint the jury pool. The government argued that “the exhibit is a judicial document subject to the common law right of access.” The court agreed with the government, because the document was discovery material that had been filed in connection with Parnell’s motion in limine, seeking to keep it from being…
Stewart Parnell, former president of the Peanut Corp. of America (PCA), linked to a 2008-2009 nationwide Salmonella outbreak that allegedly killed nine who consumed products made with the company’s tainted peanut paste and injured some 700 others, has filed a motion asking the court to exclude “all evidence related to any alleged illness or death” during his criminal trial. United States v. Parnell, No. 13-cr 12 (M.D. Ga., motion filed May 20, 2014). Observing that the government’s pleaded harm “consists of monetary harm to the customers and individuals named” and that the entire case is “premised on the alleged wrongful conduct of obtaining money by false pretenses,” Parnell argues that victim-impact evidence is irrelevant and would be highly prejudicial. In this regard, he states, “[T]he only purpose for introducing evidence of salmonella-related illness and death is to inflame the jury in an effort to suggest a decision on an improper basis.”…
Samuel Lightsey, who formerly managed the Peanut Corp. of America, which was implicated in a 2008-2009 nationwide Salmonella outbreak, has entered a guilty plea to six of 76 criminal charges, including conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and other counts related to the distribution of adulterated or misbranded food. U.S. v. Lightsey, No. 13-CR-12 (M.D. Ga., Albany Div., plea entered May 7, 2014). Facing a potential sentence of six years in prison, Lightsey has agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. The outbreak sickened more than 700 who consumed products containing tainted peanut paste, and at least nine died. According to the plea agreement, in September 2008, Lightsey and others shipped a lot of peanut paste from the company’s Blakely, Georgia, facility “without ever having submitted a sample from said lot to a laboratory for microbiological testing.” This food was misbranded because it was accompanied by a document containing…
A federal magistrate in Florida has decided that the opinion proffered by the plaintiffs’ expert in litigation challenging “brain health” marketing claims for algal-derived DHA Omega-3 fortified milk products is unreliable, thus granting the defendant’s motion to exclude it. In re Horizon Organic Milk Plus DHA Omega-3 Mktg. & Sales Practices Litig., MDL No. 12-2324 (S.D. Fla., order entered April 28, 2014). The ruling affects claims brought by consumers in six states alleging that the defendant violated state laws by falsely claiming that the DHA in its products “Supports Brain Health” and “Supports a Healthy Brain,” and that “competent, scientific evidence shows that these claims are false.” While the court found that most of the defendant’s arguments in support of exclusion went to the weight of the testimony rather than its admissibility, it agreed that the expert failed to show how small studies involving 49 women and 658 children in the…
