School official convicted of serving chicken with pieces of metal to students

At the end of 2016, Somma Food Group had a problem with its chicken tenders.

Schools in New York City had stopped serving the savory chunks of poultry after people found foreign objects in them. A school employee choked on a bone in one of the supposedly boneless tenders. Then there were the reports of pieces of metal.

So, federal prosecutors said, the owners of the Texas-based Somma — Blaine Iler, Michael Turley and Brian Twomey — turned to a senior Department of Education food official with whom they had secretly done business for help.

The owners promised tens of thousands of dollars to the official, Eric Goldstein, along with control of a second food supplier called Range Meats Supply Company, prosecutors said. The quotes were soon put back on school menus, where they remained for a few months before being permanently removed. There had been new complaints that they contained metal, bones and now bits of plastic.

On Wednesday, a Brooklyn jury convicted Mr Goldstein of conspiracy, racketeering, wire fraud and taking a bribe, consistent with prosecutors saying he had abused his official position. After the verdict was pronounced, Mr. Goldstein, sitting in the alcove of the courtroom next to his lawyers, rested his head in his hands and stared at the defense table.

Mr. Iler, Mr. Turley and Mr. Twomey were convicted of conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery.

The multi-week trial in Brooklyn Federal District Court included testimony from two defendants and a Department of Education ethicist. One email in evidence carried the subject line “Chickentopia Chicken Bar – Foreign Substance Bone Incidents.” There were also sickening photos brought in as evidence showing some of the food in question, including a drumstick tinged with what appeared to be a bright red liquid.

Mr. Iler, Mr. Turley and Ms. Twomey founded Somma in early 2015. Mr. Goldstein then oversaw the Office of Food and Nutrition Services, known as SchoolFood, which manages breakfast and lunch operations for the city’s public schools. His 20 percent stake in Range Meats was being concealed, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said SchoolFood approved Range Meats burgers for students after Mr Turley provided samples to senior officials. Mr. Goldstein was a remarkably enthusiastic consumer of his own product, the evidence shows.

He “grabbed a piece of the burger,” Mr. Turley wrote in an email filed by prosecutors, adding, “He soon came back for a few seconds and got other people out of his office.”

Mr. Goldstein and his co-defendants participated in an “umbrella quid pro quo,” prosecutors wrote in a police report: He promoted Somma’s interests and got the Education Department to buy his poultry and yogurt parfait. In return, Somma’s owners invested in Range Meats and offered Mr. Goldstein a stream of benefits.

Mr Iler, Mr Turley and Mr Twomey used the name “Roger Rabbit” to refer to Mr Goldstein, prosecutors said, and repeatedly asked him to intervene in SchoolFood decisions. At one point, according to prosecutors, they persuaded him to withdraw a fine imposed on Somma by SchoolFood after the company failed to fulfill a delivery of drumsticks.

“Eric Goldstein was for sale,” prosecutor Laura Zuckerwise said during her summons to jurors Monday. “And Michael Turley, Blaine Iler and Brian Twomey bought it.”

Defense attorneys denied that Somma bribed Mr. Goldstein and said the company reimbursed him for legitimate expenses. The transfer of money and property from Range Meats was a business arrangement, those lawyers added, set out in a lawyer-drafted contract. And, Mr. Goldstein’s lawyer insisted, Somma’s fine was waived because it had been wrongly imposed.

That lawyer, Kannan Sundaram, portrayed his client as an honest public servant who had disclosed his co-ownership of Range Meats to the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board.

“Eric Goldstein has never taken bribes,” Mr Sundaram said. “It’s not who he is.”

Prosecutors drew on email messages and records of financial transactions to illustrate what they called a corrupt relationship between the defendants.

For example, in the fall of 2015, prosecutors said Somma’s owners were frustrated that their yogurt parfait and drumsticks wouldn’t be served until spring 2016.

Mr Iler arranged for $20,000 to be transferred from a Somma bank account to a Range Meats account and then ordered $7,000 to be transferred from the Range Meats account to a lawyer who handled the divorce for Mr Goldstein, according to prosecutors. Soon after, prosecutors said, the Somma yogurt parfait was “accelerated.” Students started consuming it in December 2015.

Somma’s chicken offers were also expedited, prosecutors said, after Mr Iler sent $3,000 from Range Meats to a bank account belonging to Mr Goldstein’s father.

Later, after the reports of foreign objects and choking, Somma requested that drumsticks be replaced while SchoolFood weighed the fate of its chicken tenders. Investigators said Mr Goldstein used his clout to delay SchoolFood’s response while negotiating with the company’s owners over Range Meats.

After weeks of back and forth, Mr. Iler, Mr. Turley, and Mr. Twomey agreed to transfer Somma’s 60 percent stake in Range Meats to Mr. Goldstein, transferring nearly $67,000 to a bank account he controlled.

The next day, the researchers said, Mr. Goldstein approved the drumstick replacement request, saying enrollments could return to school menus in about a month.

In March 2016, Somma announced in a press release that its “100% Plant-Fed” antibiotic-free “Chickentopia” drumsticks from humanely treated poultry had been introduced to New York City schools for the first time.

“Chickentopia is committed to giving customers exactly what they want,” Mr. Turley said in the press release.