University of Arizona police are investigating an allegation that a longtime professor who oversees a student-run meat store has skimmed more than $130,000 from the proceeds in the past three years.
UAPD detectives seized cash, computers, inventory logs, invoices and sales receipts Tuesday from offices at the UA “meat lab,” where students sell butchered livestock to the public at the school’s agriculture center on North Campbell Avenue.
Court records filed to obtain a search warrant say police sought permission to search after receiving a tip, from an informant who was not named in the document, that “the manager of the facility is misappropriating or redirecting funds from the operation.”
UA’s website identifies the manager of the meat store operation as John Marchello, a tenured professor of animal sciences who has worked at the UA for 49 years.
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The livestock butchered and sold to the public is raised by UA students as part of their education in animal husbandry.
Marchello, 78, also is described on a UA website as coach of the UA Rodeo Club, which is mentioned in the court records as a potential recipient of some of the money suspected of being misappropriated.
Marchello, whose professor salary is around $106,000 a year, couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday or Friday. The Star made eight attempts.
A man who answered Marchello’s cellphone Thursday said he was out of town. Marchello did not respond to seven other requests for comment sent by text, email, cellphone, office phone and in a handwritten note left Friday morning at the meat lab office.
Students at the meat lab told the Star that Marchello reported for work Friday and was teaching classes on the UA’s main campus.
UA spokesman Chris Sigurdson said school officials are aware that “UAPD is conducting an active investigation into allegations of improper money handling” at the agricultural site.
Sigurdson said he can’t disclose Marchello’s current status, or whether he’s in control of meat store money during the probe, because those are personnel matters.
The student-run meat sales — held Fridays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. — aren’t affected by the situation and will continue as usual, Sigurdson said.
Court records say the tip to UAPD came from “an informant who is close to the process” and who provided invoices that allegedly show fraud and theft.
The search-warrant request indicated that the manager has been running his own business, Vaquero Livestock, on UA property and billing his private customers for “services and products provided by the university.”
The invoices allegedly show that “since 2011 over $130,000 has been diverted into the Vaquero accounts,” the request said.
Several meat lab computers seized in the police search are undergoing forensic analysis, the warrant said.
The warrant does not suggest any connection between the Vaquero Livestock firm said to be operating at UA and a business of a similar name along Interstate 10 in Tucson.
