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Suspect's aliases emerge in slaughterhouse case
The Press Enterprise ^ | February 21, 2008 | Richard Brooks

Posted on 02/21/2008 4:47:15 PM PST by ruination

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.

Daniel Ugarte Navarro, 49, a former supervisor at the now-closed slaughterhouse, surrendered last week to face prosecution on five felonies and three misdemeanors and has been released on $75,000 bail.

Sanchez -- or whoever he is -- was charged only with the three misdemeanor counts of using equipment to move animals in a slaughterhouse. If convicted as charged, he would face a maximum punishment of 1½ years in county jail, Ploghaus said.

But the legal road got rougher for him when he surrendered Wednesday afternoon to Chino police.

He gave jailers a slightly different name than expected: Jose Luis Sanchez. And his listed birthday is exactly a month earlier than prosecutors had used on his slaughterhouse charging documents, booking records show.

By doing some sleuthing, authorities found two other pending cases that they now attribute to him.

His fingerprints enabled them to make the connections, police said.

"When they take your fingerprints it all comes together," said Lt. Al Cheatham of the Chino Police Department. "All the aliases start popping up. If we can book you and get your fingerprints into the system, it's all automated now."

Even Cheatham doesn't know the man's true name. But the fingerprints prove all the cases involve the same defendant.

He pleaded guilty, as Rafael Sanchez Herrera, to a misdemeanor drug-possession charge in December 2003 and avoided any jail time by agreeing to enroll in a drug-rehabilitation program, Ploghaus said.

But Sanchez -- or Herrera, or Sanchez Herrera -- failed to show up for his final court hearing in that case, court records show.

And about that same time, he was charged in another case -- the felony possession-of-drugs-for-sale charge -- under the name of Rafael Sanchez, Ploghaus said.

Add up all of the pending cases and the man's bail would be $60,000, his booking records show.

But there's a no-bailhold on him because he also allegedly is an illegal immigrant.

"He won't be released," Ploghaus said, meaning that his immigration status and charge sheet will have to be reviewed in court before a judge considers setting a bail total.

He was arraigned on all the pending charges Thursday and is scheduled to return to court Feb. 28 in Chino.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; US: California
KEYWORDS: aliens; amnesty; beef; beefrecall; identitytheft; idtheft; illegals; immigration; recall

1 posted on 02/21/2008 4:47:16 PM PST by ruination
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To: ruination
Federal officials have recalled more than 143 million pounds of beef

That cheap labor sure helped save a lot of money¿¿¿

2 posted on 02/21/2008 4:52:55 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT (The best is the enemy of the good!)
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To: ruination
Absolutely no mention if he's illegal or not.
They musta just forgot.

< /sarc >

3 posted on 02/21/2008 5:04:56 PM PST by Publius6961 (MSM: Israelis are killed by rockets; Lebanese are killed by Israelis.)
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To: Publius6961
Well, to be fair, the third to the last sentence does say "But there's a no-bailhold on him because he also allegedly is an illegal immigrant."

But yeah, hiring illegals really helped business didn't it?

4 posted on 02/21/2008 5:07:06 PM PST by the anti-liberal (Write in: Fred Thompson)
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To: ruination

But there’s a no-bailhold on him because he also allegedly is an illegal immigrant.

Figures, afterall Chino IS in Mexifornia.


5 posted on 02/21/2008 5:53:56 PM PST by sheana
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To: ruination

Helpless animal torturer, (1 of 3 indications of a future serial torturer/murderer of humans), drug dealer, food poisoner, major recall initiator, business destroyer, multiple ID user (possibly ID thief), court skipper. Authorities still don’t even know his name. This is probably not even an unusual case - we just heard about this one because the Humane Society (that Government agency charged with law enforcement /sarc) caught it on tape and Americans don’t like torturing cows.

But don’t worry - while Bush McCain considers this just ‘jobs Americans won’t do, they are vigilantly defending America’s vital interests in Kosovo.


6 posted on 02/21/2008 5:57:13 PM PST by a_different_conservative
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To: ruination

Helpless animal torturer, (1 of 3 indications of a future serial torturer/murderer of humans), drug dealer, food poisoner, major recall initiator, business destroyer, multiple ID user (possibly ID thief), court skipper. Authorities still don’t even know his name. This is probably not even an unusual case - we just heard about this one because the Humane Society (that Government agency charged with law enforcement /sarc) caught it on tape and Americans don’t like torturing cows.

But don’t worry - while Bush McCain considers this just ‘jobs Americans won’t do, they are vigilantly defending America’s vital interests in Kosovo.


7 posted on 02/21/2008 5:57:13 PM PST by a_different_conservative
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To: ruination

So long as he votes Democrat, he can vote under each of the aliases.


8 posted on 02/21/2008 5:59:05 PM PST by sport
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To: ruination

bump


9 posted on 02/21/2008 6:03:17 PM PST by VOA
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To: DUMBGRUNT

I hope the arrests go up the ladder to management. The workers have no particular incentive to drag downer cattle to slaughter unless there is management pressure to do so.

If there were protocols for removing downer cattle from the slaughter line, why wouldn’t the workers follow them?


10 posted on 02/21/2008 6:16:03 PM PST by heartwood
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To: ruination

BTTT.


11 posted on 02/21/2008 6:29:27 PM PST by mewzilla (In politics the middle way is none at all. John Adams)
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To: ruination

Any concern by these offended people about the abuse inflicted on human babies in our teeming abortuaries? Huh? Ripping off limbs, shoving scissors in the back of the baby’s head to suck out the baby’s brains, scalding with salt water, if they’re “accidentally” born alive their getting put in pans and exposed until they die, etc???????


12 posted on 02/21/2008 6:44:24 PM PST by laweeks
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To: ruination

I live a few miles from Chino. Chino has become a Mexacanized area where illegals are everywhere. It’s a large dairy area. I would wager that less then 1% of the workers on those dairies are other then Mexican.


13 posted on 02/21/2008 6:55:18 PM PST by Bullish ( Reality is the best cure for delusion.)
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