latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-chefs-whale-meat-santa-monica-20140210,0,3674555.story

latimes.com
Chefs plead guilty to serving whale meat at Santa Monica restaurant

By Victoria Kim

1:42 PM PST, February 10, 2014

Two sushi chefs who served whale meat at a now-shuttered Santa Monica
restaurant pleaded guilty Monday to misdemeanor charges for their part
in a scheme to import and sell cuts of whale including tail meat and
“whale bacon.”

Chefs Susumu Ueda and Kiyoshiro Yamamoto were indicted in early 2013
along with Typhoon Restaurant Inc., the parent company of the restaurant
the Hump. The restaurant closed in 2010 after a sting operation
involving an associate producer of the Oscar-winning documentary “The
Cove” revealed that whale was being served off-menu to customers.

Whales are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which
prohibits the importing or sale of whale meat.

Ueda, the head sushi chef, and Yamamoto each face a maximum of three
years in prison for the charges. Prosecutors said they would also
recommend a $5,000 fine and 200 hours of community service.

They are cooperating with the government and could be called to testify
in the trial against the restaurant, set to begin in April. The supplier
of the whale meat, Ginichi Ohira, pleaded guilty in 2011 and has yet to
be sentenced.

In their plea agreements, the two chefs named the restaurant’s owner
Brian Vidor and manager Chris Schaefer, neither of whom has been
charged, as being part of the conspiracy to sell whale meat.

Ueda admitted to ordering several pounds of whale meat from Ohira in
2007 with approval from Vidor and Schaefer. Ohira in turn contacted his
supplier in Japan, and delivered about three kilograms of whale akami
(red meat), about two kilograms of whale bacon, and about two kilograms
of whale onomi (tail), according to the plea.

The restaurant paid $15,367.75 for the order totaling about 11 pounds,
according to the plea.

Yamamoto admitted to serving pieces of whale meat on two occasions to
“confidential informants posing as customers” in February and March 010.


Twitter: @vicjkim

Travis McGee wrote:
>
> Chefs plead guilty to serving whale meat at Santa Monica restaurant

Aw, crap. I missed it. I would've flown down
there just for that.

> The restaurant paid $15,367.75 for the order totaling about 11 pounds,
> according to the plea.

Ooh! Expensive stuff!

Sqwertz wrote:
>
> More sensationalist reporting snipped that really didn't make sense.
> Find somebody serving dogs and cats and then I'll listen.

Dog, yes! I want that! No cat, though.
I won't eat cat.

In article >,
Sqwertz > wrote:
>On Mon, 10 Feb 2014 18:48:23 -0500, Travis McGee wrote:
>
>> latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-chefs-whale-meat-santa-monica-20140210,0,3674555.story
>>
>> 1:42 PM PST, February 10, 2014
>>
>> Two sushi chefs who served whale meat at a now-shuttered Santa Monica
>> restaurant pleaded guilty Monday to misdemeanor charges for their part
>> in a scheme to import and sell cuts of whale including tail meat and
>> ´whale bacon.¡
>>
>> Chefs Susumu Ueda and Kiyoshiro Yamamoto were indicted in early 2013
>> along with Typhoon Restaurant Inc., the parent company of the restaurant
>> the Hump. The restaurant closed in 2010 after a sting operation
>> involving an associate producer of the Oscar-winning documentary ´The
>> Cove¡ revealed that whale was being served off-menu to customers.
>
>Getting "indicted" for misdemeanor charges is an oxymoron. There is
>no such thing.

Perhaps they were indicted for a felony and pled out on a misdemeanor.

Cindy Hamilton

>
>> Ueda, the head sushi chef, and Yamamoto each face a maximum of three
>> years in prison for the charges. Prosecutors said they would also
>> recommend a $5,000 fine and 200 hours of community service.
>
>Uh, misdemeanors can't land you in prison. Another example of some
>fine reporting they have here.
>
>More sensationalist reporting snipped that really didn't make sense.
>Find somebody serving dogs and cats and then I'll listen.
>
>-sw


--

> Sqwertz wrote:
> >Uh, misdemeanors can't land you in prison. Another example of some
> >fine reporting they have here.

They can at least in Virginia. 3 misdemeanors equals a felony. I was
a juror once and the case was some guy shoplifting a $5 steak from a
grocery store. Misdemeanor. But because that would have been his 3rd
misdemeanor shoplifting charge in so many years, the judge informed us
that if we voted guilty, he faced up to 8 years in state prison.

I planned to vote not guilty only because the sentence seems way to
harsh to me. Luckily the case was dismissed before we had to vote.

G.

On 2014-02-11 5:39 PM, Gary wrote:

> They can at least in Virginia. 3 misdemeanors equals a felony. I was
> a juror once and the case was some guy shoplifting a $5 steak from a
> grocery store. Misdemeanor. But because that would have been his 3rd
> misdemeanor shoplifting charge in so many years, the judge informed us
> that if we voted guilty, he faced up to 8 years in state prison.
>
> I planned to vote not guilty only because the sentence seems way to
> harsh to me. Luckily the case was dismissed before we had to vote.
>
>

That is a ood argument for jurors not being informed about things like
that in advance. A person is supposed to be judged on the evidence, not
on the severity of the punishment he faces.

On Tuesday, February 11, 2014 7:14:18 PM UTC-5, Dave Smith wrote:
>
> That is a ood argument for jurors not being informed about things like
> that in advance. A person is supposed to be judged on the evidence, not
> on the severity of the punishment he faces.

True, except the judiciary in the USA is riddled with
politics. Under such circumstances, as a juror, I
would probably also consider the severity of the
sentence for the particular crime (if I had that
information).

http://www.richardfisher.com

"Gary" > wrote in message ...
>
>> Sqwertz wrote:
>> >Uh, misdemeanors can't land you in prison. Another example of some
>> >fine reporting they have here.
>
> They can at least in Virginia. 3 misdemeanors equals a felony. I was
> a juror once and the case was some guy shoplifting a $5 steak from a
> grocery store. Misdemeanor. But because that would have been his 3rd
> misdemeanor shoplifting charge in so many years, the judge informed us
> that if we voted guilty, he faced up to 8 years in state prison.
>
> I planned to vote not guilty only because the sentence seems way to
> harsh to me. Luckily the case was dismissed before we had to vote.
>

and how many times did he shoplift and NOT get caught? Lock him up!

Pico Rico wrote:
>
> "Gary" wrote:
> >
> > I was
> > a juror once and the case was some guy shoplifting a $5 steak from a
> > grocery store. Misdemeanor. But because that would have been his 3rd
> > misdemeanor shoplifting charge in so many years, the judge informed us
> > that if we voted guilty, he faced up to 8 years in state prison.
> >
> > I planned to vote not guilty only because the sentence seems way to
> > harsh to me. Luckily the case was dismissed before we had to vote.

So anyway, once the jurors were chosen, the judge told us the charges
and the penalty. But then he said, "Your only job is to determine
guilty or innocent and not to consider the sentence." Yeah right...he
shouldn't have told us all that then. There was no way I was going to
be a part of putting someone in prison up to 8 years for stealing a $5
steak. That steak would have cost us taxpayers maybe 20 times that
much. Overkill sentencing, imo.
> >
>
> and how many times did he shoplift and NOT get caught? Lock him up!

I'm sure he did shoplift more times and I was also convinced he was
guilty of this occasion where he did get caught. The penalty is still
wrong to me. Give him 500 hours of community service or something but
not hard prison time...geezz!

G.