FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 13, 2010

CONTACT: Vince Leibowitz

512.705.7001
vince@hankgilbert.com

Staples’ Failures Caused Child’s Death

Staples Fined Companies, Individuals Responsible For Child’s Death A
Pittance; Gilbert Says This Failure Symptomatic Of TDA Being Used And
Abused By Career Politicians Seeking Higher Office

LUBBOCK—The failure of Todd Staples to aggressively utilize the department’s

regulatory powers to protect Texans from dangerous pesticides are directly to blame for
the death of a two-year-old Lubbock girl, Staples’ opponent charged Wednesday.
Hank Gilbert, the Texas Democratic Party’s nominee for Texas Agriculture
Commissioner, said that the death of Vantashia Samuels in July of 2007 was the direct
result of incumbent Commissioner Todd Staples’ abject failure to appropriately use his
agency’s regulatory authority and protect consumers during his time in office.
“The fact that Todd Staples and this agency have such little regard for human life
that they think less than $2,000 in fines for the company that improperly stored the
pesticide directly linked to a child’s death should sicken every Texan to their very core,”
Gilbert said. “Then, to think that they were planning to send a warning letter to the
child’s mother—in essence telling a grieving mother ‘this is all your fault,’ is
unconscionable,” he continued.
“This is what you get when career politicians use a state agency as a stepping
stone to higher office for nearly two decades,” Gilbert said.
“In this case, TDA didn’t even bother to personally contact any of the victims for
their actual investigation. No victim interviews were done. That’s outrageous,” Gilbert
said. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—Todd Staples has blood on his hands, and
he has to answer to more than just the people of Texas for that.”
“In Lubbock today, there is a mother without a child because enforcing the law
isn’t important to Todd Staples,” Gilbert continued.

Background information about this case is contained on the attached pages, along
with a Fact Sheet.
--30--
 HOW TODD STAPLES’ NEGLIGENCE LED TO A CHILD’S DEATH
The Death of Vantashia Samules

According to internal Texas Department of Agriculture documents and reports

from the Lubbock Police Department, Red River Commodities, a company well-known
to TDA as a user of highly toxic pesticides, improperly stored a highly toxic pesticide
known as Phostoxin.
Phostoxin (the trade name for aluminum phosphide) is a toxic pesticide possessed
by Red River Commodities in pellet form. The company was using Phostoxin for
fumigation of grain warehouses, and storing the pesticide in a manner inconsistent
with state law. By failing to secure and lock the cabinet holding the toxic pesticide, a
Red River Commodities employee who wasn’t licensed by TDA to apply or use the
pesticide acquired Phostoxin. The employee, in turn, sold the pesticide to a Lubbock
family and applied it at their home to kill roaches. As a result of the misapplication of
Phostoxin, five people in the home became sick from inhaling Phostoxin fumes and
two-year-old Vantashia Samuels died of Phostoxin poisoning.

Staples’ Regulatory Failure and Light Penalty for Baby Samules’ Death is Par for Course

In spite of the fact that baby Samules died as a result of Red River Commodities’
failure to store the pesticide properly – as well as TDA’s failure to properly oversee
companies and licensed applicators using these products – the Texas Department of
Agriculture levied less than $2,000 in fines against Red River Commodities and less
than $1,000 in fines against the licensed applicator on staff for Red River
Commodities. The former Red River Commodities employee who illegally applied the
Phostoxin was fined a total of $2,500, but, according to TDA records, was never located
as part of the agency’s investigation.
Gilbert said Staples and TDA have an abysmal record when it comes to protecting
Texans, and that the death of Vantashia Samuels is the result of an agency that has been
used and abused by career politicians looking for a stepping-stone to higher office.
The fluctuation in the number of regulatory inspectors at the agency is a prime
example of Staples’ ongoing negligence. Gilbert noted that, in each election year from
1991 to 2006, the number of regulatory inspectors employed by TDA significantly
dropped from what it was the year prior.
In 2007 when this incident occurred, TDA had only 136 regulatory
inspectors—up only two inspectors form the election-year low of 134 in 2006, which
was down considerably from 143 inspectors in 2005 and 150 inspectors in 2004.
“One has to assume that this is the result of Governor Perry and Comptroller
Combs wanting to look like fiscal conservatives so they can say they’ve slashed budgets
as they climbed the ladder to higher office,” Gilbert said. “The number of TDA regulator
inspectors has fluctuated like a yo-yo for most of the last decade, hitting rock-bottom in
election years,” Gilbert said.
“Clearly, Todd Staples didn’t plan to do much better. He’d been on the job many
months when this happened and still hadn’t appreciably increased the number of
inspectors at TDA beyond the numbers that they were when Susan Combs was
abandoning her office to run for Comptroller,” Gilbert said. “The only reason for an
appreciable increase in the number of regulatory inspectors during Staples’ tenure is that
the Structural Pest Control Board and its 13 inspectors merged with TDA,” he continued.
“It's not ‘doing more with less,’ it's taking an inexcusable risk with public safety
by playing the game of a career politician,” he said.
“At the end of the day, Texans can look to Todd Staples and cast this death at his
doorstep,” Gilbert said. “It is Todd Staples who oversaw an agency that failed to pay any
attention whatsoever to a company that, according to TDA’s own reports, the agency
knew was applying toxic pesticides like this,” Gilbert said. “Staples has abdicated his
responsibility to protect Texans,” he continued.
 FACT SHEET

Phostoxin is the trade name for aluminum phosphide manufactured by

Degesch, the same company that manufactured Zyklon B—a similar
fumigant—used to exterminate persons held in concentration camps during
the Holocaust.

FACT: TDA was well aware that Phostoxin was in use by Red River Commodities and
had been for years. [Pesticide Complaint 01-07-0074, Incident 00003035, Page 4]

FACT: Red River Commodities staff lied to TDA inspectors about how Phostoxin
applications at the company. [Pesticide Complaint 01-07-0074, Incident 00003035, Page
6]

FACT: Although Red River was fined less than $2,000, TDA planned to send the mother
of the deceased two-year-old a threatening letter essentially blaming her for her own
child’s death. [PERC documents, page 2]

FACT: TDA admitted that Red River Commodities failed to properly secure the
Phostoxin by failing to keep it under lock and key. [PERC documents, page 4]

FACT: In 2007, TDA had only 136 regulatory inspectors on staff according to data from
the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. This was an increase of only two inspectors
from the 2006 low of 134 (an election year low) coming after an all-time pre 2008 high
of 150 inspectors.

FACT: Although TDA says they couldn’t locate Anthony Fred Evans—and presumably
has not yet served Evans with his notice of violation given the fact that the agency
recently told the Texas Attorney General’s Office this case was still pending—Lubbock
County records indicate that Evans served a 55-day jail sentence for Driving While
Intoxicated in 2009; TDA had ample time to serve Evans and prosecute him through the
Administrative Hearings process in 2009.