030142 Ex-Tyson Foods Managers Make Plea DealJanuary 18, 2003Chattanooga, TN - Two former Tyson Foods managers pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras into the United States to work at the poultry plants of the nation's largest meat producer. The pleas come less than three weeks before Tyson and three other current and former employees are to face trial in the case. In separate federal court hearings, Spencer Mabe, 50, and Truley Ponder, 59, both former managers at Tyson's complex in Shelbyville, pleaded guilty to one conspiracy count each. Ponder's attorney, Aubrey Harwell, said his client would testify against Tyson if subpoenaed. Mabe's attorney, W. Thomas Dillard, declined to say whether his client would testify. Federal prosecutors declined to comment. Gary Mikelson, spokesman for Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson, said the plea bargains did "not change the company's position or the facts, which show our company is serious about our responsibility to hire only properly documented workers." Mikelson's statement said "it was a violation of company policy that led us to relieve Truley Ponder and Spencer Mabe from their job duties in September 2000, before the government's case against our company was filed." A former Tyson employee, Amador Anchondo-Rascon of Shelbyville, has said Tyson managers asked him to supply and transport illegal immigrants to the company's poultry plants and to provide the workers with fraudulent identification. Anchondo-Rascon, 43, made a deal with prosecutors and plans to testify at the trial, set to begin Feb. 4. Other defendants in the case are Gerald Lankford, 63, of North Wilkesboro, N.C., a former employee; Robert Hash, 49, of Greenwood, Ark.; and Keith Snyder, 42, of Bella Vista, Ark. Hash and Snyder remain on administrative leave from Tyson. Another former Tyson manager, Jimmy Rowland, 36, of Shelbyville, committed suicide in April 2001 after he was indicted.
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