The Press-Enterprise
CHINO, California -- Although the Chino slaughterhouse case triggered national outrage and the nation's biggest meat recall, a second suspect faced only misdemeanor charges when he surrendered this week -- until his aliases and pending drug cases emerged.
"His worst problem is the felony possession for sale. It's (punishable by) mandatory state prison," San Bernardino County Deputy District Attorney Debbie Ploghaus said Thursday of the defendant, whose true name she still doesn't know for certain. "We know him as Luis Sanchez, with a birth date of 3-8-75."
Under that identity, he is one of two men charged in the Hallmark/Westland Meat Co. case that was filed in court earlier this month after an undercover investigators for the Humane Society of the United States secretly videotaped two slaughterhouse workers using forklifts, electric prods and a water hose to force apparently sick or injured cattle to their deaths.
Federal officials have recalled more than 143 million pounds of beef, including about 55 million pounds sold to the National School Lunch Program.
Posted by tyne at February 22, 2008