A trial date for the federal criminal prosecution of the former co-owner of now-defunct Rancho Feeding Corporation and two former employees won’t be set until Dec. 17, according to U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer. Breyer delayed setting the trial date at a status hearing Wednesday in San Francisco that marked the first court appearances for former Rancho co-owner Jesse “Babe” Amaral Jr., 76, former foreman Eugene Corda, 65, and former worker Felix Cabrera, 55. The three men were released on bail after their felony indictment in mid-August. Amaral and Corda are both residents of Petaluma, CA, and Cabrera lives in nearby Santa Rosa. The U.S. District Court for Northern California will conduct the trial, which likely will not begin until early 2015. The trio is charged with participating in a scheme that occurred at a Petaluma slaughterhouse from mid- to late 2012 through January 2014 to process cattle that should have been condemned for “bovine ocular squamous cell carcinoma” (commonly called cancer eye). Instead, the diseased cows were slipped past USDA inspectors, slaughtered and processed for human consumption. Rancho Feeding Corp., which owned and operated the slaughterhouse for many years, was forced to shut down and recall about 8.7 million pounds of beef products once USDA caught onto the scheme. The slaughterhouse was allowed to reopen to serve the Nevada and Northern California beef market, but under a new ownership group. Amaral and the two former Rancho employees are each charged with eight to 11 felonies, including the distribution of adulterated and uninspected meat, conspiracy and mail fraud. Amaral is further charged with mail fraud conspiracy for defrauding farmers and ranchers by means of false invoicing. At this week’s hearing, defense attorneys agreed to review the charges and categorize the relevant discovery they will need for the case to go forward. Cabrera, who managed animals in the pens for Rancho, is going to be assigned a different public defender, but his counsel released the Spanish interpreter who was present for this week’s hearing until further notice. Separately, government prosecutors have a plea agreement with Robert Singleton, 77, who co-owned Rancho with Amaral. He has pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of adulterated, misbranded and uninspected meat in exchange for his testimony when the trial does begin. Singleton will presumably be eligible for consideration at sentencing. For the others, multi-count convictions at trial can add up to a painful set of penalties, especially jail time. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, the maximum statutory penalties for conspiracy to distribute adulterated meat are 5 years imprisonment, 3 years supervised release, a $250,000 fine and a $100 special assessment. The maximum statutory penalties for fraudulent distribution of adulterated meat are 3 years imprisonment, 1 year supervised release, a $10,000 fine and a $100 special assessment. The maximum statutory penalties for mail fraud and mail fraud conspiracy are 20 years imprisonment, 3 years supervised release, a $250,000 fine and a $100 special assessment. Defense attorneys in the case are Hanford, CA-based Michael Anthony Dias for Amaral, Federal Public Defender Edward J. Hu for Cabrera, and Fresno, CA-based Mark Wade Coleman for Corda. Hartley M.K. West, assistant U.S Attorney for Northern California, is the lead prosecutor in the case. The pending counts for the defendants are: Amaral

  • 18:371 – Conspiracy to Distribute Adulterated, Misbranded, and Uninspected Meat (1)
  • 18:1349 – Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud (2)
  • 21:610(c) and 676(a) – Distribution of Adulterated and Misbranded Meat (3-8)
  • 18:1349 – Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud (9)
  • 18:1341 – Mail Fraud (10-11)

Corda and Cabrera

  • 18:371 – Conspiracy to Distribute Adulterated, Misbranded, and Uninspected Meat (1)
  • 18:1349 – Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud (2)
  • 21:610(c) and 676(a) – Distribution of Adulterated and Misbranded Meat (3-8)