Hide Article Text (OCR)
market its meat and would effectively shut down, said Karen Stuck, a public information office? for Hie tJSDA inWashington.The order was issued June 12after a complaint filed by the department against the plant in connection with a March 1 incident in which James Henry Leonard allegedly threatened the inspector twice, she said.“USDA has authority to immediately withhold inspection services from any plant if an employee threatens, interfers with or assaults an inspector performing official duties,” said Donald L. Houston, administrator of the USDA food safety and inspection service.“Inspection resumes once action is taking to correct the problem and satisfactory assurance is given that the situation will not recur,Houston said.Lawrence Leonard said the USDA held an administrative hearing on the matter May 9.“They said he couldn’t come back for at least a year and then only after they had another hearing,” Leonard said.He said the plant, which employs about 30 people, will comply.“We can’t slaughter withoutinspection, so there's nothing else we can do. We can appeal to the Department of Agriculture,and continued when the inspector and Leonard's brother came into the plant the nextmorning.“My brother did threaten him; he told him he had a 5-inch knife. He didn't have the knife with him, though.” Leonardsaid.“I felt like since the incident occurred at a bar after hours, the inspector was at fault as much as my brother was, but the judge didn't feel that way,” he said.Ms. Stuck said the Sixty-Six Packing Co. is one of 12 plantsin the country under the USDA's “intensified regulatory enforcement,' a program designed to “strengthen enforcement in 'certain plants where we have significant problems.”She said a letter sent to the plant Feb. 3 told the owners, “Our records for your firm disclose a history of non-compliance involving a previous criminal conviction related to the handling of diseased animals and failure to maintain acceptable sanitationstandards.”In July 1979, U.S. DistrictJudge Howard Bratton fined the packing plant $1,000 on a misdemeanor charge of slaughtering an adulterated cow.
Newspaper Details
Clovis News Journal
Clovis, New Mexico, US
Mon, Jul 09, 1984
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Lawrence L.
TX, USA 03 Jul 2018
Other Publications Near Clovis, New Mexico
The Clovis News
The Eastern New Mexico News
Clovis Evening News Journal
Clovis News Tribune
Clovis New Mexico Evening News Journal
