Four more former customers of Hereford House in Leawood have filed lawsuits against the restaurant’s parent company, as the troubled steakhouse group continues to grapple with the fallout of alleged food contamination by a former employee.
Caleb McDonald and Lexie Shrock, a Johnson County couple; James Wantland Jr., of Overland Park; and Ariel Parnell of Kansas City, Missouri, all filed lawsuits against Hereford House Restaurant Company of Kansas this week.
As of Friday, 24 lawsuits have been filed against the restaurant company in Johnson County court.
Jace Christian Hanson, a 21-year-old former employee of Hereford House’s Leawood location, faces 22 federal charges of criminal threat for allegedly contaminating restaurant food between April 1 and 23. The former employee allegedly posted videos of a man urinating in restaurant food and rubbing food on his buttocks and genitals in the Hereford House kitchen. FBI investigators traced the videos back to Hanson’s cellphone.
Hanson also faces one charge of criminal damage and 10 federal charges of sexual exploitation of a minor, all at the federal level, after child pornography was found on his personal device.
Like previous plaintiffs, McDonald, Shrock, Wantland and Parnell all allege experiencing combinations of nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and cramps, as well as emotional and psychological distress, after eating at the Leawood restaurant while Hanson was employed there.
Hanson was arrested on April 26. According to an affidavit filed in Johnson County Court, Hanson has since admitted to contaminating the food, attributing his behavior to a dislike of his job.
The now two dozen lawsuits filed after Hanson’s alleged behavior came to light all claim that the restaurant was negligent toward customers and served them a defective product.
The Leawood location of Hereford House, where the alleged contamination took place, closed Aug. 3 amid significant community backlash. The restaurant group maintains three locations in Independence, Shawnee and Zona Rosa.
Wantland and Parnell’s lawsuits were filed by Matthew Birch of Shamberg, Johnson and Bergman, a Kansas City personal injury law group that has handled several similar claims against Hereford House. McDonald’s lawsuit was filed by Jerry Wallentine of Martin & Wallentine, a personal injury firm based in Olathe.
Hanson is being held on a $500,000 bond and will next appear in court in September.
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