Younger DeCoster wants no jail time for role in 2010 Salmonella outbreak

SIOUX CITY - Egg baron Peter DeCoster plans to ask a federal judge for probation rather than prison for his role in a 2010 Salmonella outbreak that sickened nearly 2,000 people nationwide.

Quality Egg LLC, a former Iowa egg company owned by Austin 'Jack” DeCoster and Peter DeCoster, pleaded guilty in June to bribing public officials and misbranding eggs to make them appear fresher than they were.

The father and son also pleaded guilty to introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison.

Their sentencing is scheduled to start Monday in U.S. District Court in Sioux City.

Peter DeCoster's attorney, Stuart Dornan, asked in a sentencing memo filed Monday that his client, a father who has done missionary work, be allowed to 'avoid the costly and vacuous nature of a prison term” in favor of probation and community service.

A sentencing memo filed by Jack DeCoster's lawyer was sealed.

Prosecutors are asking U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett to consider all options, including incarceration, home confinement or probation for Peter DeCoster, 51, of Clarion, and Jack DeCoster, 80, of Turner, Maine.

'Both defendants Jack and Peter DeCoster held positions of sufficient authority at Quality Egg such that the law holds them criminally responsible for the widespread harm caused by the Salmonella outbreak,” according to the sentencing memo filed Monday by Assistant U.S. Attorney Pete Deegan.

Deegan cites Quality Egg's record of poor food safety, bogus independent audits, sham hazard analysis plan, circumvention of federal inspections and false expiration dates on eggs.

'The sentences imposed should account for the need to adequately incentivize similarly situated corporate officials to act responsibly when it comes to food safety,” Deegan wrote.

Prosecutors allege Quality Egg on at least two occasions in 2010, including April 12, 2010, offered money to a 'public official with intent to influence an official act.”

On April 12, 2010, Quality Egg employees offered a USDA inspector $300 to release eggs for sale that had failed to meet federal standards, according to criminal charges filed in 2012 against Tony Wasmund, a former Quality Egg employee.

Wasmund, 63, of Willmar, Minn., pleaded guilty in September 2012 to conspiring to bribe an egg inspector. His sentencing has been rescheduled numerous times, leading to speculation prosecutors were using his testimony against the DeCosters.

More than 1,900 people across the country reported in 2010 getting sick from Salmonella Enteritidis linked to tainted eggs supplied by Quality Egg, doing business as Wright County Egg, and Hillandale Farms, an Alden operation also managed by the DeCosters. The companies recalled 550 million eggs nationwide.

Iowa is the top egg-producing state in the nation.

The DeCosters got out of the egg business after the outbreak, with Jack DeCoster leasing his Iowa farms to Centrum Valley Farms of Alden.

As part of the plea deal, Quality Egg agreed to pay a $6.79 million fine and the DeCosters each agreed to pay $100,000.

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