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(File Photo)

LANSING -- Emails among Michigan Department of Corrections staff members show an Aramark employee ordered a kitchen worker to serve cake that rodents partially ate at the Central Michigan Correctional Facility near St. Louis.

Progress Michigan, a liberal advocacy group, released the emails, which are a part of a cache of communications obtained under the Freedom of Information Act last year.

Jeffrey Larson, an employee at the facility, emailed multiple staff members on July 20, 2014, about the discovery.

"A kitchen worked (sic) reported to custody staff that he was ordered to serve cake that had evidence of rodents eaten from it," Larson wrote in the email. "The Aramark employee allegedly ordered him to cut the sides of the cake off and serve it to the population."

In another email, Lloyd Rapelje, an administrator in the MDOC, was more specific about what happened.

"The Aramark staff served cake rodents were observed eating from," he wrote.

• Read the emails here.

The emails reflect that Aramark fired the employee, referred to by the name "Ellsworth" in the emails. Once the incident was discovered, MDOC officials put a "stop order" on Ellsworth, meaning he would not be allowed to come into Central Michigan Correctional Facility.

Chris Gautz, spokesman for the MDOC, said a prisoner who worked in the kitchen at the facility was throwing away cakes that appeared to have been eaten or pawed at by a rodent. When Ellsworth saw the inmate throwing away whole cakes, he told him to stop.

Instead, Ellsworth told the prisoner to cut off the parts that appeared to have been eaten by rodents.

"He complied with that and put frosting over the portion that hadn't been touched by any rodents and then served that to prisoners that morning," Gautz said.

Later on that morning, the inmate told correctional officers about the incident. Gautz said Ellsworth was kicked out of the prison within 45 minutes of MDOC staffers becoming aware of the incident and then the "stop order" was put in place a few hours later.

An email from Michael Flesch, vice president of operation/correctional services for Aramark, stated Ellsworth would be fired on July 21. Gautz was unable to confirm Ellsworth was fired and directed questions about his status to Aramark.

Nothing like this has happened at Central Michigan Correctional Facility since the incident, Gautz said.

"The staff acted correctly as soon as this occurred," he said. "They took action and made it clear this is not acceptable behavior."

Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan, said the incident is another black eye on Aramark's relationship with the state of Michigan.

"The Aramark prison food service contract has resulted in drug smuggling, sexual contact between employees and inmates, an attempted murder for hire plot, maggots in and around food -- and now this," Scott said in a statement. "The Snyder administration should use this opportunity to come clean about all the problems that they know of related to Aramark because the public has a right to know."

Progress Michigan received "tens of thousands" of pages showing emails regarding Aramark's work in Michigan's prisons. The group has been analyzing the emails since last year, and is still waiting for more emails from the MDOC through subsequent Freedom of Information Act requests.

Among the notable findings turned up in the emails was that the original fine imposed on Aramark by Gov. Rick Snyder's administration -- $98,000 -- was cancelled and the public was not notified. Emails showed MDOC Director Dan Heyns told Snyder's chief of staff he would cancel the fines.

Aramark has a three-year, $145 million contract with the state to provide food services to Michigan prisons.

Aramark's performance in Michigan prisons received intense scrutiny for a number of reasons last year, among them employee misconduct, unapproved menu substitutions and inadequate staffing. There were multiple reports of Aramark employees having sex with inmates, some in walk-in refrigerators inside prison facilities.

After all the scrutiny on Aramark's work with the state, Snyder hired Ed Buss -- former director of prisons systems in Florida and Indiana -- to oversee the contract between the state and the contractor. Buss left that position in late January, and the Department of Technology, Management and Budget has been overseeing the contract since that time. No permanent replacement for Buss has been announced.

A message was left with an Aramark representative seeking comment for this story.

Kyle Feldscher is the Capitol education and MSU reporter for MLive Media Group. Reach him via email at kylefeldscher@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter at @Kyle_Feldscher. Read more stories here.