Longview, Texas -- A six-person jury on Wednesday found a Gladewater woman guilty of violating local food handling ordinances when she was a supervisor at a local McDonald's. Fewer than 5 percent of such complaints ever reach a jury trial, according to the city.
The restaurant, at 128 W. Loop 281, was not cited. The jury, however, found Laura Deann Blaylock guilty of allowing employees to serve buns that had signs of rodent damage to customers in March, 2009.
During a routine inspection on March 25, city inspectors Rosalind Jones and Leisha Kidd-Brooks found rodent droppings on 12 packages of sesame seed buns and reported that employees served those buns to customers. Jones cited Blaylock for the damaged buns and for employees seen carrying food barehanded without documentation that they had received proper training in food handling.
Kidd-Brooks said Thursday that the violations were corrected before a subsequent inspection.
Blaylock, who no longer works for McDonald's, worked Thursday at a local retailer and was unavailable for comment. Her husband, Jeff Blaylock, said his wife left McDonald's because of difficult working relationships and because the restaurant refused to accept responsibility for the violations.
On Wednesday, Blaylock testified to jurors that she reported the violations to her supervisors at McDonald's but nothing was corrected, said her husband, who attended the trial.
Blaylock must either appeal or pay $873 in fines and court costs within 10 days to avoid jail time, court officials said.
"We're dead broke," the husband said. "What's the incentive for McDonald's to clean anything up?"
McDonald's representatives in Longview and at the restaurant's corporate office in Illinois did not return calls for comment.
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