More charges follow Hereford House contamination. How much time could suspect get?
The former employee who allegedly contaminated food at the Hereford House in Leawood is facing over 30 new charges, according to new court documents revealed Tuesday.
The Johnson County District Attorney’s Office has charged 21-year-old Jace Christian Hanson with:
- 22 counts of criminal threat for allegedly adulterating or contaminating food.
- 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a child for allegedly possessing child sexual abuse materials.
One count of criminal damage.
Each of the 33 charges are felonies, according to the court documents.
Such charges could come with jail time, but how much will Hanson face? Here’s what other examples suggest.
Adulterating or contaminating food
A nearby Kansas restaurant faced a problem of staffers contaminating food over a decade ago.
Mi Ranchito, a Mexican restaurant with multiple locations in the Kansas City area, dealt with poisoned salsa 13 years ago.
Arnoldo Bazan pleaded guilty March 22, 2011, to a charge of conspiracy to tamper with a consumer product. He had hatched a scheme to put poison in salsa served to customers at the restaurant’s Lenexa location.
Bazan and his wife, Yini De La Torre, who was a waitress at the Lenexa restaurant, planned to get revenge after being fired by the restaurant by putting a pesticide into the salsa, according to a news release by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The report says that De La Torre put a pesticide into the salsa on two occasions.
Bazan faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000. De La Torre was sentenced to more than six years in prison and ordered to pay more than $478,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to the same charge.
Elsewhere in the United States, a school custodian in New Jersey was charged with tampering with food products, along with other charges in November 2023.
According to the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office, Giovanni Impellizzeri was accused of tampering with or contaminating food products and utensils in the cafeteria with bleach and personal bodily fluids, including saliva, urine and feces. The food items were then allegedly offered for consumption to school students and staff.
Impellizzeri pleaded not guilty in February. If convicted, he could face anywhere between 10 to 20 years behind bars, according to WPVI-TV, an ABC affiliate in Philadelphia.
Sexual exploitation of a child
Reports from past cases around the Kansas City area suggest what kind of jail time Hanson could face for sexual exploitation of a child.
In 2020, an Overland Park man pleaded guilty to possessing hundreds of photos and dozens of videos of child porn, court records showed.
Alan Noltensmeyer pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography, according to a news release from then-U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.
He faced at least five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000, according to the release.
A different Kansas City man was sentenced in federal court in 2013 to the maximum of 30 years in federal prison for producing child pornography, according to a news release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Michael D. Arnett, of Roeland Park, pleaded guilty to one count of producing child pornography. He admitted that investigators found child pornography on his computer when they served a search warrant at his Roeland Park home in 2012.
Arnett’s prison sentence was followed by 10 years of supervised probation, registering as a sex offender for life and paying a $100 special assessment fee. This was the maximum sentence the court could impose.
Criminal damage
Prosecutors also charged Hanson with one count of criminal damage for damaging or substantially impairing the use of Hereford House’s property. The extent of the damage was between $1,000 and $25,000.
Damage between $1,000 and $25,000 is a level nine, nonperson felony.
A level nine felony would be subject to a sentence of up to 12 months in prison, according to Kansas sentencing guidelines.
Did you eat contaminated food at Hereford House?
The Johnson County District Attorney’s Office and police are asking customers who fell ill after eating at the restaurant during that period to contact the Leawood police at tips@leawood.org or 913-266-0696.
Leawood police said they had been contacted by more than 380 people who had eaten at the restaurant, including some who fell ill afterward.
This story was originally published June 5, 2024 at 4:48 PM.
