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A customer of the Hereford House in Leawood voiced her frustrations
Wednesday after being unable to get answers from police and health
officials about possibly eating contaminated food last week.

The woman learned Tuesday evening that the Johnson County district
attorney charged a former steakhouse restaurant worker with contaminating
food between March 26 and April 25.

Leawood police asked anyone who fell ill after eating at the restaurant to contact them at tips@leawood.org or 913-266-0696. After a sleepless night,
the woman called police Wednesday morning and was told someone would call
back.

As the hours passed, her concern grew, and she contacted the Johnson
County health department, the restaurant, the district attorney’s office
and police administration, who all referred her back to the number police provided.

“Oh my goodness, on a scale of 1 to 10, it’s over a 10,” the Olathe woman,
who declined to be identified because of concerns for her safety, said of
her frustration.

“I do know for a fact that I ate there — I fit the timeline,” she said,
noting that it had been around six hours since she first called the police
and she still hadn’t heard from them.

SIMILAR TO FOOD POISONING

Prosecutors announced Tuesday that they had charged 21-year-old Jace
Christian Hanson of Kansas City with one felony count of unlawfully adulterating or contaminating food at the restaurant at 5001 Town Center
Drive in Leawood’s Town Center Plaza.

Prosecutors haven’t said how Hanson allegedly contaminated the food.
Melody Webb, a spokesperson for the Johnson County District Attorney’s
Office, confirmed Thursday that some sort of bodily fluid was introduced
into the food, which is why they are asking the public for help on
identifying any health issues that could be connected.

Officials have not publicly verified the type of bodily fluid. Hanson, who worked at the restaurant part time for less than a month, remained in
Johnson County jail on a $100,000 bond.

As of Wednesday morning, more than 50 people had contacted police by
either phone or email saying they had eaten at the restaurant during the
period in question, said Capt. Brad Robbins with the Leawood Police
Department.

“We’re getting back to people as quickly as we can,” said Robbins, who
added they’d received dozens of calls and emails. Not everyone claimed to
have fallen ill; some indicated that they only had questions, Robbins
said.

Police were responding to everyone who called in, which was part of the
reason for the delay. Police had been in contact with the Kansas
Department of Health and Environment and the Johnson County Health
Department, who indicated that the type of illnesses that people would
have experienced would have been gastric distress similar to food
poisoning, including upset stomachs and other gastrointestinal issues.

“That’s something that comes and goes fairly quickly, not any kind of
lasting event,” Robbins said. He declined to go into further details of
the investigation, saying the case had been handed over to the district attorney’s office.

Because of the number of calls, people should give police at least 24
hours to get back to them, Robbins said. He said it does take time for detectives to respond to each person and interview them to gather their
basic information and see what happened to them.

Police are still working to determine how many people were affected. “This
is obviously a month-long period that this subject was working at the
Hereford House, so there are likely thousands of people who have eaten at
this particular restaurant,”

Robbins said. “Those who may have experienced some incident and have
called in, it’s going to take us more than just an hour or two to get to
them.”

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article288200000.html

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