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KIEL, Wis. — A Wisconsin man has been sentenced to federal prison for placing “foreign objects” into Johnsonville Sausage links.

WITI reported that Jonathan Lane was sentenced Friday to 54 months (four-and-a-half years) in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

Lane had been convicted of “tampering with a consumer product” and was also ordered to pay more than $42,000 in restitution.

Lane worked as a contract employee at Johnsonville Sausage in Sheboygan County, Wisc. Prosecutors said he “placed foreign objects into sausage links” on three separate occasions in March of this year.

Video surveillance confirmed he place a cigarette paper into sausage on one occasion, and on another, he placed a copper wire in a sausage link.

Prosecutors said, “if the items had not been removed, the items would have continued on the processing line, thus affecting interstate commerce.”

Lane worked in the “final phase” of the processing line, before packaging, and prosecutors said, “any materials introduced had a risk of going out to the consumer.”

Operations had to be shut down at the plant, and all products believed to have possibly been impacted had to be discarded.

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