MONROVIA — A Maryland man faces criminal charges in Warren County, Va., for allegedly selling rotten meat from a supermarket garbage bin.

Fifty-four-year-old Rodney Sparks of Monrovia is due back in court Sept. 18. He was arraigned Monday.

Sparks runs a store called Rodney’s Discount Foods in Front Royal, Va. A state food inspector alleges the store sold meat that was misbranded, uninspected and appeared unfit for human consumption.

Investigators say they traced the meat to Food Lion stores in Berryville, Va., and Charles Town, W.Va. They say workers at the Berryville store knew Sparks as a “Dumpster diver.”

Sparks says he never sold unsafe products. He says the meat he resold was given to him by supermarket workers and any food he took from trash bins was to feed cats.

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