A San Antonio wholesale meat distributor was fined $40,000 for mislabeling frozen chicken in an attempt to dodge a 2002 Mexican ban on Texas chicken.
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Allen Jackson "A.J." Hausman, 58, had pleaded guilty on behalf of himself and his company, Almacenes de Tejas, to four misdemeanor charges of violating the federal Poultry Products Protection Act.
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A federal judge on Wednesday also sentenced Hausman and the company, which does business at ADT, to three years probation.
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In 2002, Mexico banned chicken from Texas after some chickens raised in the state tested positive for exotic Newcastle disease, a type of bird flu.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture accused Hausman's company of removing the original labels from 858 cases of frozen chicken from a Texas producer. The company then put labels stamped with a federal mark of inspection for an Alabama producer, according to court records.
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Hausman also acknowledged his company possessed counterfeit labels produced by his wife's printing company.
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The 858 cases, which included about 35,000 pounds of frozen chicken leg quarters, were destroyed after agriculture department investigators uncovered the improper labeling.
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Hausman's lawyer, Ronald "Rusty" Guyer, said the chicken was fit for consumption by anybody.
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Hausman has said his company does most of its business in Mexico and delivers about 3 million pounds of meat each month to Monterrey, Mexico.
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The company was also ordered to pay $100 to a special crime victims' fund.
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