A Cold Spring, Minn., woman was sentenced to 90 days in jail and ordered to pay more than $202,000 in restitution for contaminating chicken at a GNP Co. plant, resulting in a nationwide recall.
Faye Marie Slye, who turned 37 on the day of her sentencing Friday, pleaded guilty this fall to two felony counts of damage to property. As part of a plea agreement, Slye will serve a work-release program of 30-day sentences at the Stearns County jail every January for the next three years and remain on probation for five years.
Her actions in early June 2016 prompted GNP Company to recall almost 55,000 pounds of chicken products marketed under the Gold'n Plump and Just Bare brands. The meat was sold primarily to food-service vendors.
Slye confessed after surveillance footage and evidence collected by the FBI and Cold Spring-Richmond police linked her suspicious behavior. Slye said she brought in dirt and sand from the parking lot and put it on the meat.
St. Cloud-based GNP Company, which until 2011 was known as Gold'n Plump Poultry, is the nation's 19th-largest chicken processor.
Earlier this year, the company was acquired by Pilgrim's Pride, a division of the Brazilian-based meat processing giant JBS S.A.
