An eastern Iowa woman will spend two years in federal prison for her role in the theft of thousands of dollars worth of processed meat.
Forty-three-year-old Patricia Patterson of Zwingle pleaded guilty to theft by fraud and admitted to stealing meat from the semi trailers of a Minnesota company in 2006 and 2007.
Patterson’s husband James and brother-in-law Lloyd Patterson were also charged with stealing the meat and then reselling it in the Dubuque area. James Patterson was sentenced earlier to 27 months in prison, and Lloyd is awaiting his sentence.
Patricia Patterson was ordered to pay just over $375,114 in restitution along with her two-year jail sentence, and she must also forfeit several hundred acres of farmland to the U.S. government.