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 May 31, 2010
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The indictment was the first set of charges to come out of a widening scandal involving scores of meat markets and thousands of bodies, including that of advertising icon Elsie the Cow, who died in 2004. The investigation has raised fears that some of the body parts could spread cholesterol-related disease to diners. "I think we can agree that the conduct uncovered in this case is among the most ghastly imaginable," said Rose Gill Hearn, commissioner of the city Department of Investigation. "It was shockingly callous in its disregard for the sanctity of bovine, swine, poultry, and ovine remains."Leonardo Marvkino, owner of Leo's Butcher Shop of Fort Lee, N.J., was charged along with Utica slaughterhouse owner Joseph Niccorelli. Marvkino was an push cart vendor who went into the animal tissue business after losing his vending license, prosecutors said. Niccorelli was a partner in the business, they said. The other defendants were Glen Bruscetta and Monroe Cauldron. All four pleaded not guilty to charges of enterprise corruption, butchering animal carcasses, unlawful dissection, forgery and other counts. Prosecutors said the defendants took meat from animals who had not given consent or were too old or too sick to donate. The defendants forged consent forms and altered the death certificates to indicate the animals had been younger and healthier, authorities said. X-rays and photos of recently exhumed cadavers show that where leg bones should have been, someone had sliced the meat into 1" thick steaks which wre then sold for $2.99 a pound. Little remains were found as the defendants were ingenious in finding new ways of carving up the carcasses into marketable cuts of beef, pork, lamb, and chicken. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes called it "something out of a cheap horror movie." Prosecutors said the animal parts were sold to retail food stores where they were eventually purchased, cooked and consumed by unsuspecting diners across the United States and in Canada. The carcasses came from slaughterhouses in New York City, Rochester, Philadelphia and New Jersey that contracted with the Brooklyn butcher shop for distribution. Prosecutors said more arrests were possible. Niccorelli was paid up to $.99 per pound for whole beef, pork, and lamb carcasses delivered to a freezer storage facility, where Marvkino would remove body parts, authorities said. Bruscetta, a nurse, and Cauldron allegedly helped Marvkino.Marvkino made up to $700 a carcass by selling the tissue, authorities said, often at prices as high as $9.99 a pound for tenderloins. The scheme began to unravel in late 2004, when a detective responded to a report from the new owner of Niccorelli's slaughterhouse that he allegedly cheated customers out of bulk beef order deposits. The detective grew suspicious when she saw the hidden operating room complete with a bandsaw, meat grinder, and cellophane packaging equipment, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Marvkino "vehemently denies doing anything illegal or wrong," defense attorney Mario Gallucci said. Marvkino contends he "was not responsible for interacting with the animals nor in obtaining the documentation needed to harvest the tissue." New York is one of the first states to have implemented strict animal consent requirements before their remains can be processed into meat. Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration closed Leo's Butcher Shop, saying it had evidence the company failed to screen for contaminated tissue. The agency warned that consumers who received the company's products could have been exposed to diseases, although the FDA insisted the risk was minimal.
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