Former Hereford House employee pleads guilty to 33 charges
A former Hereford House employee accused of contaminating food at the steakhouse group’s Leawood restaurant pleaded guilty to 22 counts of criminal threat, one count of criminal damage over $1,000 but less than $25,000 and 10 counts of sexual exploitation/possession of child pornography Thursday.
Jace Hanson, 22, sat with a blank expression in Johnson County court as he pleaded guilty.
In April 2024, the FBI received a tip about possible food contamination by an employee at the restaurant. The alleged contamination included someone urinating in food, rubbing food on his genitals and posting videos of it online, according to court documents.
Police identified Hanson as a suspect, and he allegedly admitted to more than 20 instances of contaminating food during the month he worked at the restaurant. He also allegedly admitted to filming himself and posting the acts online.
When investigators approached Hanson at the restaurant last year, they asked him if he was aware of any food contamination, and he allegedly told them, “I’ll just be straight up, yeah” and said that he had “just been doing stupid (expletive),” according to court documents.
Hanson allowed police to examine his phone, and when they did, they found videos of him contaminating the food, as well as files that depicted child sexual abuse material, according to court documents.
During a hearing last year, prosecutors said investigators found evidence of the images as well as a chat history among Hanson and other users online about wanting to sexually exploit children, calling it “shocking to the conscience (and) sadistic behavior.”
In a series of lawsuits filed against the restaurant’s parent company, patrons alleged they became ill after eating at the Leawood restaurant while Hanson was employed there.
The charges and the publicity surrounding them eventually led Hereford House to shutter the Leawood restaurant last year. The Hereford House restaurant group closed a second location, its Zona Rosa site, earlier this year. It has two remaining locations in Shawnee and Independence.
Hanson is set to appear for a departure hearing at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 26.
