Judge tosses prisoners' chicken suit

BURLINGTON, Vt., Jan. 13 (UPI) -- A federal judge in Vermont has dismissed a lawsuit brought by three convicted prisoners who claimed they were served chicken tainted with entrails.

William Sessions III, chief judge at the U.S. District Court in Burlington, dismissed the lawsuit against ConAgra Foods Inc. Monday, saying the plaintiffs were unable to prove their allegation that the company sold tainted food that was "unreasonably dangerous" and caused physical harm, the Burlington Free Press reported Tuesday.

Christopher Butts, 52, of Dayville, Conn., claimed in the lawsuit that he bit into a piece of reheated frozen chicken while serving time at the Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville, Ky., for driving while intoxicated with death resulting in November 2005. He said he felt a pus-like substance squirt into his mouth and saw what appeared to be a chunk of the bird's digestive tract inside the meat. He claimed to have suffered nausea, vomiting, convulsions and loss of enjoyment of chicken as a result of the incident.

Two other prisoners -- Henry "Hank" Butson, 60, who was convicted of two murders, and Corydon Cochran, 50, who was jailed for for drunken driving and other charges -- said in the suit that while they did not bite into any tainted chicken, they ate from the same batch and suffered emotional harm from coming close to consuming the chicken entrails.