Felix Cabrera, the one-time foreman of the Petaluma,CA slaughterhouse, was sentenced Friday in San Francisco to three months of federal custody to be followed by two years of supervised probation. He was also fined $1,000. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer said Cabrera should self-surrender for the 90 days jail term on Sept. 2, 2016, and he was given one year to pay the fine.
The sentence is for Cabrera’s plea of guilty to conspiring to violate the Federal Meat Inspection Act. Cabrera is the last of four defendants to be sentenced over a scheme to get cattle condemned for cancerous eyes pass USDA inspectors when the Petaluma slaughterhouse was owned and operated by Jesse (Babe) Amaral and Robert Singleton. Like Cabrera, the other defendants also plead guilty and cooperated with the government under plea agreements. Discovery of the breach in USDA’s inspection procedures led to an 8.7 million pound recall of all meat produced from January 2013 through January 2014. At that time, the plant was doing business as the Rancho Feeding Corp. Through his attorney,, Cabrera sought a sentence of probation only, saying his boss of 30 years, Jesse Amaral, ordered him to participate in the scheme to deceive meat inspectors. “The only reason Mr. Cabrera —who has no criminal record whatsoever—participated in the criminal enterprise was that Mr. Amaral threatened to fire him and make sure he could not get another job,” federal public defenders said in their sentencing brief. “With a bad back, a third-grade education, and a bad reference from his job of 30 years, he was unlikely to find other employment,” they said. They said Cabrera, a Mexican native who legally immigrated to the U.S. when he was 18 years old, regrets his decision to help Amaral fool USDA inspectors. Cabrera’s take from the scheme was only about $1,000. He would direct a yardman, Eugene D. Corda, to move selected animals into place. Corda, who made nothing extra for his involvement, got off with a three month probationary sentence. Amaral was sentenced to a year and day in federal prison to be followed by two years of supervised probation with the first year in a half-way house. His long time business partner and cattle buyer, the 79-year old Robert Singleton, was sentenced to three months in prison with one year of supervised probation following release. Both Amaral and Singleton have reached out of court settlements with their customers who were financially damaged by being caught in the recall. Breyer plans to wrap up the restitution issue on May 31.
