San Diego-based food manufacturer Bumble Bee and two of the company's managers were charged with violating safety regulations after a worker was cooked to death in a pressure cooker in 2012.
Jose Melena, aged 62, was doing maintenance work in a 35 foot long pressure cooker at Bumble Bee Foods' Santa Fe Springs plant before dawn on October 11, 2012.
Assuming Melena was in the bathroom, another worker turned on the cooker after filling it with 12,000 pounds of tuna. The temperature reached 270 degrees.
After realizing Melena was missing, a supervisor asked workers to look for Melena through an intercom announcement. Workers also searched the parking lot.
Melena's body was found in the cooker after it was turned off.
Bumble Bee Foods is facing a maximum fine of $1.5 million. If convicted of all charges, the two managers could receive maximum sentences of three years in prison.
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