The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco does not like it, but Jesse J. Amaral Jr. is getting two additional months of freedom before he needs to report for sentencing, now rescheduled for 2 p.m. on Feb. 10, 2016. The one-time owner of Rancho Feeding Corp., who has admitted processing
Continue Reading Judge Tells Former Rancho Owner to be ‘Prepared to Surrender’ in February
Sentencings for Selling Cows With ‘Cancer Eye’ Pushed Into 2016
The sentencings of defendants in a scheme to fool the U.S. Department of Agriculture and sell cattle with diseased eyeballs has again been delayed, some into next year. After spending 14 minutes hearing a defense motion on Sept. 3, federal Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley continued the hearing to allow
Continue Reading Sentencings for Selling Cows With ‘Cancer Eye’ Pushed Into 2016
Attorney for Former Rancho Owner Wins Hearing on Protective Order
The Valentine’s Day recall last year of 8,742,700 pounds of beef — all production of the Rancho Feeding Corporation from Jan. 1, 2013 through Jan. 7, 2014 — immediately sparked protests from customers who used the Petaluma, CA, slaughterhouse to process their cattle. After all, they had nothing to do
Continue Reading Attorney for Former Rancho Owner Wins Hearing on Protective Order
DOJ Food-Safety Enforcement Role to Continue in 2015
When producers of such staple foods as beef, eggs, and peanut butter found they were the targets of federal criminal prosecution, it became a top food-safety story of 2014. But is it likely that food-safety enforcement will continue to rely on these U.S. Department of Justice-led (DOJ) criminal cases in
Continue Reading DOJ Food-Safety Enforcement Role to Continue in 2015
Rancho Co-Owner Will Go To Trial Alone, Three Others Make Plea Deals
Jury selection will begin July 16, 2015, in the federal criminal conspiracy case involving former Rancho Feeding Corp. co-owner Jesse J. Amaral Jr. The 76-year-old cattle company executive will be tried alone as three others, implicated in the alleged conspiracy to sell for human consumption cattle known to have cancerous
Continue Reading Rancho Co-Owner Will Go To Trial Alone, Three Others Make Plea Deals
Former Rancho Employees Charged With 11 Felonies
Straight-up fraud and conspiracy, mostly to get cows with “cancer eye” past USDA inspectors so they could be processed along with healthy animals, were allegedly behind the demise of the Petaluma, CA, slaughterhouse that closed in February during a recall of nearly 9 million pounds of beef. There is no
Continue Reading Former Rancho Employees Charged With 11 Felonies