Slaughterhouse Owner Gets Prison Time for Uninspected Meat

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — The co-owner of a Northern California slaughterhouse at the center of a nationwide meat recall two years ago has been sentenced to a year in federal prison.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat newspaper reports that 78-year-old Jesse "Babe" Amaral Jr. of Rancho Feeding Corp. pleaded guilty last year to distributing adulterated, misbranded and uninspected meat.

Amaral was spared a long sentence because of poor health.

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer called Amaral's actions a betrayal of the trust of hundreds of millions of Americans.

He was the last of four defendants to plead guilty in what prosecutors say was a scheme to process cattle that U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture veterinarians rejected for having cancerous eyes.