Two years after recall, peanut exec looks for way back

By Bryan Gentry

The News & Advance

LYNCHBURG

Two years after Peanut Corp. of America was blamed for a nationwide salmonella outbreak, the company's former president would like to rebuild his reputation and his career.

However, Lynchburg resident Stewart Parnell feels his hands are tied.

Occasionally, relatives or lawyers of people who suffered from salmonella publicly blame Parnell and call for his arrest. His lawyers advise against telling his side of the story.

They have not heard whether the federal government might charge him.

"I don't know whether there's an investigation going on or anything," Parnell said. "I sure wish they would come on and put this thing to bed."

His attorney Bill Gust said Parnell wrongfully lost his reputation because politicians and salmonella victims wanted someone to blame, and lawyers wanted someone to sue.

"Stewart was simply grist for the political mill," he said. " Stewart has been vilified as the source of all of their family suffering. Frankly, I think that's unfair."

Bill Marler, a lawyer who led numerous salmonella victims in suits against the company, favors punishment for Parnell.

He also supports the food safety bill signed into law by President Barack Obama this month. The law had wide support in part because of PCA, he said.

"The PCA outbreak was so large and so outrageous that it gave some impetus for business and consumers to sort of stick together on it," Marler said.

After finding salmonella in an open container of peanut butter made by PCA, the FDA descended upon the company's factory in Blakely, Ga., where it found some traces of salmonella. Federal investigators raided Parnell's home office on Wiggington Road just outside Lynchburg as part of a criminal investigation.

Soon, thousands of products, ranging from pet food to Easter candy, were pulled from store shelves because they contained PCA's ingredients.

Parnell took center stage in the investigation during a congressional committee hearing in February 2009. An FDA official testified that more than 500 people had been infected and the outbreak may have contributed to eight deaths. House representatives accused Parnell of purposefully selling salmonella-tainted peanuts and dared him to eat food with PCA ingredients.

They quoted e-mails in which Parnell authorized shipping peanut products that had once tested positive for salmonella but were found clean in a second test, sometimes in a different lab.

Parnell refused to answer questions, citing his Fifth Amendment right to not testify against himself.

Gust said that the e-mails read by Congress in the hearing were quoted out of context.

The congressional hearing seemed to be motivated by politics rather than food safety, Gust said. "What these guys wanted to showcase was all these reasons why we need a bigger budget for the FDA."

The bill lets the FDA conduct more inspections and force recalls of contaminated products, Marler said.

He argued that the FDA needs to step up enforcement. While he believes Parnell violated food safety laws, he also said there have been other outbreaks involving worse wrongdoing without criminal charges.

"If you're going to prosecute Stewart Parnell, you should start prosecuting a lot of other people," he said. "And I think that's what should happen."

Gust said that if all facts were known, "the FDA would be equally on trial." The agency had approved PCA's testing policies, including provisions for retesting samples, he said.

Parnell has started to do some consulting work with peanut companies, but for the most part he has not had a job in two years as he awaits a decision from federal investigators.

Companies hesitate to have a public relationship with him for fear of a backlash, Gust said.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the investigation.