A Zwingle man who stole thousands of dollars worth of meat was sentenced April 15, 2010, to more than two years in federal prison.

James Patterson, age 45, from Zwingle, Iowa, received the prison term after an August 26, 2009, guilty plea to theft by fraud of property valued in excess of $1000, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit theft by fraud of property valued in excess of $1000.

In a plea agreement, Patterson admitted he stole meat from interstate trucking shipments in 2006 and 2007 when he worked for a trucking company based in Austin, Minnesota. Patterson was a truck driver and picked up loads of meat in East Dubuque, Illinois. Patterson took the loads to his farm near Zwingle where he and others removed cases of meat. The meat was sold to people in and around Dubuque. Over the course of one year, nearly $190,000 in meat was determined to be missing from shipments hauled by Patterson and others who assisted in the scheme.

Patterson was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. Patterson was sentenced to 27 months’ imprisonment. A special assessment of $300 was imposed, and he was ordered to make $375,114.84 in restitution. Patterson was required to forfeit several hundred acres of farmland to the United States. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Patterson was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set.

Patterson’s wife also pled guilty in connection with the same scheme. Her sentencing date has not yet been set.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Richard L. Murphy and investigated by the Dubuque County Sheriff’s Office.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR 09-1015.

Return to Top