Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 5, 1993 TAG: 9308050161
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In both cases, they were right.
Not one of the hundreds of reports filed in June of syringes in soft drink cans turned out to be authentic, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says. And an Associated Press check of the storytellers' fate shows that many of them are in big trouble.
According to the FDA, at least 39 storytellers in 20 states have been arrested, most charged with lying when they reported a consumer product had been tampered with. Eight have pleaded guilty, and seven more have trials or other court appearances this month.
Lying about consumer product tampering, even to the maker of the product, is a federal crime, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and sentencing guidelines demand prison time.
The task of sniffing out the hoax and crushing it fell largely to the FDA's barely opened Office of Criminal Investigations. The office, under director Terry Vermillion, broke into a run.
Word of the first reported syringe reached Vermillion as he was about to mow his suburban Washington lawn.
"I'll have to say," said Vermillion, a 23-year Secret Service hand who's held his current job 17 months, "I recognized this was going to be a very flashy event and was going to get a lot of media publicity. We rolled."
After more than a month of intense work, Vermillion could firmly proclaim last week, "To date, there has not been one verified, legitimate claim of a syringe in a can of Pepsi."
Typically, the investigators took no more than a day and a half to crack the veneer of lies. Larry Sperl, who is responsible for FDA criminal cases in 12 Southwestern states, credits their "good basic investigative technique . . . a lot of good interviewing skills" for the speedy results.
It may be easier to build a tiny ship in a bottle than to pass a syringe through Pepsi's screened funnels that fill soda cans flying down plant production lines at 30 mph.
Easier yet for a hoax to defy common sense in summer and sink a lot of practical jokers.
James Robison, 19, of Portland, Ore., admitted putting a syringe in Diet Pepsi as a joke on his girlfriend's mother. His trial begins Sept. 7.
Or people were eager to be noticed.
John A. Sedwick, 45, of St. Petersburg, Fla., said he wanted attention when he dropped two screws into a can of caffeine-free Diet Coke. "It just doesn't pay to tamper with cans," he said in a public confession.
Some were looking for a windfall.
James Ray Russell, 30, of West Hollywood, Calif., told investigators he put a syringe in a Pepsi can so he could sue the soft-drink giant and give the money to homeless children.
Vermillion would not say how many people all told may be facing prosecution. He said only that investigators will do what they can to handle what comes their way, given competing priorities.
by CNB