Former Hereford House worker gets 11+ years in prison for contamination, abuse videos
A former employee of the Hereford House location in Leawood who was accused of intentionally contaminating food that made a swath of patrons sick and filming his actions to post online has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.
As part of their investigation into the food contamination last year, investigators also allegedly found Jace Hanson in possession of graphic videos of sexual abuse of children. In court testimony on Thursday, a psychologist described brutal videos Hanson had as being at the top end of a 1-10 scale that rates the severity of child sexual abuse images, at a “9 or 10.”
Calling it an “extraordinary case,” prosecutors sought a sentence outside the normal range for the charges based on a group of factors that included Hanson’s financial relationship with his employer, his “future danger to the community” and his conduct having a “disproportionately adverse effect on the victim and local community.”
Judge Thomas Kelly Ryan agreed that prosecutors met their burden for the upward departure over the course of two days of testimony and handed down a 136-month sentence to Hanson on Thursday afternoon at Johnson County District Court.
The charges against Hanson and the publicity surrounding them eventually led Hereford House to shutter the Leawood restaurant last year after sales plummeted at the location. The Hereford House restaurant group closed a second location, its Zona Rosa site, earlier this year.
Pointing to earlier testimony, Ryan said Hanson’s actions “single-handedly” shut down the restaurant — its brand “essentially ruined” and employees out of work.
Investigators were brought to the restaurant in April 2024 after the FBI received a tip about possible food contamination by an employee at the restaurant. The alleged contamination included someone urinating in food and rubbing food on his genitals and and was documented in videos that were posted online.
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 police examined Hanson’s phone, they then found the videos of him contaminating the food, as well as videos that depicted child sexual abuse material, according to court documents and testimony.
Recounting the case’s facts, Ryan said investigators found evidence of “this other whole sphere for Mr. Hanson of online sharing, online requests, online encouragement for what can only be considered some of the most reprehensible conduct that one human can do to another, to a defenseless child.”
“To use the term repulsive,” he said, “doesn’t begin to cover it.”
During the portion of Thursday’s proceedings dedicated to the request from prosecutors to enhance Hanson’s sentence, prosecutors called a psychologist, Dr. Mitchell Flesher, to testify. Flesher described graphic videos Hanson allegedly possessed, as well as sadistic Telegram chat messages Hanson allegedly sent to a community he found online.
In a series of lawsuits filed against the restaurant’s parent company, patrons have alleged they became ill after eating at the Leawood restaurant while Hanson was employed there.
Speaking to Ryan, Johnson County assistant district attorney Xavier Andrews pointed to the public trust Hanson had violated as a food service worker.
“As we in society walk about the world and go through our life, when it comes to the trust that we put in strangers, probably short of medical care, there is no greater trust we place in people that make our food,” he said.
Hanson’s attorney, Jeffrey Gedbow, emphasized that Hanson had taken responsibility for his actions by pleading guilty to the 33 charges without a plea deal, as well as his client’s age, 21, at the time of the offenses.
Hanson read a statement during the sentencing hearing, apologizing to his coworkers, Hereford House patrons and his family and saying he had planned to better himself while he was incarcerated.
“I knew I had problems many years ago and I wanted to get help, but I didn’t know how knowing all of the things I would have to open up about,” he said.
Previous reporting from The Star’s Robert Cronkleton and Caroline Zimmerman was used in this story.
This story was originally published October 9, 2025 at 5:48 PM.
