The owners and two employees of Rancho Feeding Corp. were indicted last Thursday with 11 felony counts following a shut-down of the facilities for illegally selling tainted beef. 

The slaughterhouse in Petaluma was owned by Robert Singleton and his former partner, Jesse Amaral Jr. who were long time members of the North Bay farming community.

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They knowingly circumvented inspections conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in order to process and distribute beef from cows that had eye cancer and other diseases that made them unfit for human consumption.

Also included in the indictment are two employees, Felix Cabrera and Eugene Corda, who were instructed by the owners, among other points in the 11 count indictment, to swap out the decapitated heads of cows showing signs of eye cancer with those of healthy cows during the inspectors' lunch break, and carving out the "USDA Condemned" stamp from the carcasses. 

The charges brought against the four defendants wrap up the eight month federal investigation that led to the recall of over 8.7 million pounds of beef which were distributed across the United States and Canada.  

Over 44,000 retail establishments were involved in the massive recall of the beef and hundreds of thousands of dollars were lost by numerous North Bay Ranchers and farmers who did business with the slaughterhouse or were caught up in the investigation and forced to dispose of their own cattle and meat.

Singleton is expected to appear in court on Friday and plead guilty to the charge of "distributing adulterated, misbranded and uninspected meat" and has been cooperating with prosecutors.  

Both Amaral and Corda pled not guilty to the charges against them and were released on a $50,000 bond. 

Cabrera has not yet shown up in court for his initial appearance before prosecutors.

All four defendants could face up to several hundred dollars in fines and 20 years behind bars. 

TagsRancho Feeding Corp, cancer beef, tainted meat, US cancer beef