By: Hal C Clarke

A disgraced former Department of Education (DOE) executive who pushed tainted food into New York City schools in exchange for bribes dodged serious prison time Monday, walking away with what many view as a slap on the wrist.

Eric Goldstein, the ex-schools big who made millions off the scheme, received a mere two-year prison sentence for a scandal that endangered children’s health with contaminated chicken filled with metal and plastic.

In a teary plea to Brooklyn Federal Judge Denny Chin, Goldstein wept as he begged for mercy, citing the suffering of his family. “They’ve suffered tremendously these past few years,” Goldstein lamented, asking the court to “punish [him] without punishing them.” His emotional plea struck a chord with Judge Chin, who reduced what could have been a six-year sentence, describing Goldstein and his co-defendants as “fundamentally good” men who had gone “severely astray.”

Goldstein’s scheme involved bribing his way into securing city contracts for Texas-based meat supplier Somma Foods.

According to an exclusive report by the New York Post, these bribes helped flood nearly 2,000 city schools with substandard, dangerous chicken products. The contaminated food included drumsticks leaking a thick red liquid and chicken riddled with bones, metal, and plastic.

The health risks were evident—one DOE employee had to be saved by the Heimlich maneuver after choking on a bone in a chicken tender.

While Goldstein and his defense lawyer, Neil Kelly, attempted to paint him as a man who once pushed for healthier school lunches, prosecutors saw the situation for what it was: pure corruption. Goldstein accepted nearly $100,000 in bribes, kickbacks, and shares in the shady Somma Foods business. This was no innocent oversight; it was a clear-cut case of bribery and extortion.

Despite the disturbing evidence, Judge Chin appeared more sympathetic to Goldstein’s personal plight, echoing his lawyer’s argument that the disgraced executive had already been punished by having his face “splashed across the front page of the Post” and other outlets. His co-conspirators—Michael Turley, Brian Twomey, and Blaine Iler—were also dealt lenient sentences. Turley and Twomey received just 15 months behind bars, while Iler got a year and a day.

The real question remains: Was justice served? Goldstein’s crimes exposed thousands of school children to dangerous food contaminants like metal and plastic. Plastic, when ingested, can cause long-term digestive issues, while metal fragments can lead to immediate choking hazards, internal injuries, or worse. The health implications are enormous, yet the punishments hardly reflect the gravity of their actions.

Though the DOE eventually pulled all Somma Foods products from schools in 2017 after numerous complaints, the damage had already been done. Goldstein may have been publicly embarrassed, but for many, his light sentence seems like little more than a slap on the wrist.