St. Louis, MO – A former kosher slaughterhouse executive convicted of financial fraud won’t get a new trial after a federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s rejection of his appeal on Friday.
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The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling in the case of Sholom Rubashkin. The former Agriprocessors manager was convicted of 86 financial fraud charges in 2009 and sentenced to 27 years in prison. His arrest followed an immigration raid at a Postville plant the company once owned.
Immigration charges against him were later dismissed, and a jury acquitted him of violating child labor laws.
Rubashkin claimed, among other issues, that U.S. District Court Judge Linda Reade, who presided over his trial, couldn’t be impartial because she participated in planning the raid.
Reade met with investigators and prosecutors and discussed charging strategies, number of anticipated arrests, logistics and other issues related to the investigation, according to evidence obtained through a Freedom of Information lawsuit brought by Rubashkin’s attorney.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa filed a brief with the federal appeals court saying Rubashkin should get a new trial because Reade could be biased.
But the federal appeals court said Friday that Rubashkin’s lawyers didn’t ask for the judge to excuse herself during the trial and didn’t object to deadlines set for that type of request.
The court noted that Rubashkin didn’t get the records requested under the FOIA for nearly a year. They came in around the time of his sentencing, but it wasn’t until two months after sentencing that he filed a motion asking for a new trial. Reade rejected that request, and he appealed.
“After studying the lengthy record we find no evidence that the district court’s decision to remain on the case prejudiced Rubashkin’s verdict. We conclude that the district court did not err by denying Rubashkin’s motion for a new trial,” the court said in a 32-page ruling.
Rubashkin’s attorney, Guy Cook, said they would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“This is not justice by any measure,” Cook said. In an email to The Associated Press, he said the appeal court’s opinion “ignores obvious flaws.”
Ruling here PDF
It seems the fact that Linda Reade sat with these judges that very morning as well as the day before had its desired impact.
The last time Reade offered to sit on that circuit was 7 years before.
I am skeptical that Rubashkin will get any fairness. It seems that this is an very tangled web that reaches very high.
Did anyone expect a different outcome when Judge Reade was one of the 3 Judges sitting on the appeal..?
hashem should help sholom mordche and his family to overcome this tragedy.
kol ma deovid rachmana letav ovid (whatever hashem does, is done to the good).
We are winding this thing down. Only one place to go with this and that’s the Supreme Court.
Sooner or later his supporters are going to see numerous judges seeing nothing wrong with the verdict.
It’s a tragedy for the family.
It’s too much punishment for a first time offender – all true.
He’s not a dangerous criminal.
But it’s time to start winding down the anti-semitic comments. It’s not helping and this isn’t 18 century Europe under the Czar.
His first lawyer was a bigger problem than the judge.
Good Shabbos.
this city is rigged with bureaucracy!!!!!!!!!!! and real anti-semitic!!!!!
He should go to the Supreme Court
It was inevitable when Linda Reade herself was on the panel. If ever this is a case of skewed and unfair “justice” this is it.
Supreme Court? Obama can give the Klal a Yom Tov gift & grant him clemency. Let the conviction stand. Just release him.
Which world are we? what a corrupted court system!
I was not expecting this bad news I was sure they would at least knock off some years from his sentence hopefully this is not the end of the road
Very Sad , thats all i have to say .
I guess the US Supreme Court is next.
Brocha v’hatzlocha!!
its a very sad news, and we still not giveing up for his released.
Don’t be surprised if the epicenter of the next earthquake is Des Moines.
Harbay shluchim laMakom.
It is quite obvious that Hashem has a plan and we can’t see it yet. We are in chodesh Elul and we can’t give up. We just have to be mispalel. We know this is NOT the final verdict and we have to keep our efforts doubled and tripled with true tefilah and histadlius. The final verdict is yet to be heard.
i read the entire verdict, they found him wrong on every count. Also saying the court did not err in any decision , going so far as saying he was received the low end with a 324 month sentence,could have been worse.
we know a beis din that says “koulo Chayav” is overturned, as finding a person completely guilty without a chance of anything to help him is flawed.
what can we say just before yom hadin hagadol vanorah …
anyone listening to the appeal felt he stood a strong chance not just cause his attorney was good but the goverments was lousy and stupid..
apparently powers behind the scenes worked effectively and the pressure on holder not strong enough.
we need the judge of all to help out and bring his might down so we can all read the good news when it happens.
she and her cronies are celebrating but not for long.
could have saved a lot of time and money if he’d told the truth and taken the plea bargain. teshuva is always the best way.
Breaking the law is always risky. If you are willing to take the chance then you must be prepared for all consequences. Just being Jewish no longer qualifies as a reason to support someone. You have to be honest and righteous too. At least that’s what we were told about David Weprin. You can’t have it both ways.
I hope no one reading about this failed appeal will start thinking that Rubashkin is guilty. Nuuuuthhhiiinnngggggg could be further from the truth. This continues to be a case that is a war on shechita against a saint and a tzadik whose only crime was to be born a yid.
It seems that it isn’t going to work to go to the Supreme Court. They would most likely not take the case (they get huge numbers of appeals cases and do not have the time to accept each one), especially as this does not have huge ramifications for the entire country. People from the rest of the USA don’t care about one trial, especially as it is not a death penalty case.
It is not anti-semitism at play but a poor choice in a legal team. His lawyers should have filed motions in time and should have requested the judge excuse herself from the case. They did not obey the rules and procedures of the court so they are to blame, not the legal system.
This is another Dreyfus case.
If he were a goyishe criminal would you all be so upset?
The man is a yid and a gonef.
He deserves to be punished as much as anyone else.
The fact that he is a frume yid is a shanda far di goyim.
I think that Nat Lewin is one of the best appellate lawyers in the country and made the best possible arguments on behalf of a retrial but the facts of the case were simply not supportive of a reversal. Its very unlikely that the Supreme Court will grant cert in this case so the best possible outcome is for Rubashkin to serve most of his sentence and perhaps get clemency 15 or 20 years from now.
I’ve known Nat Lewin for a long time and have always thought that if he were half as good a lawyer as he believes he is, he would be an incredible lawyer. But the bottom line is that he’s not. While he’s no doubt highly intelligent, in cases such as this he lets his emotions get the better of him, and that is a cardinal sin for a litigator. The appellate briefs that he drafted contained far too much hyperbole and positive statements about Rubashkin, when they should have focused more on the legal arguments. The same was true of Lewin’s oral argument, which I listened to on audio. The government’s attorney did a much better job of sticking to the relevant facts and was more familiar with the case law that the panel focused on. I’m not saying that Lewin caused Rubashkin to lose the appeal but he certainly didn’t help. And all that while supposedly collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars (paid for mostly by members of the community at learge).
Rubashkin’s lawyer, Nat Lewin, is on Zev Brenner’s radio show tonight explaining the remaining options. He says it does not look good and there is only a 1 in a 100 chance that the Supreme Court would argree to hear an appeal of the 8th Circuit’s decision (which rests to a larger degree on their findings of fact rather than legal interpretations and is not the kind of case the Supreme Court takes from the circuit courts). Most importantly, Lewin blamed it all on the prosecution being too agressive and said there are NO issues of anti-semitism here.
SMR violated the halachos of geneivas daas, shkeker, chilul Hashem, and dina demalchusa.
He committed crimes for which people go to prison for many years.
I feel sick when I hear him described as a baal bitachon. A baal bitachon does not break the halachah in order to make parnassah.
I agree that 27 years is far too long. And I feel sorry for SMR and his family. But it’s disgusting to attribute the sentence to anti-semitism. There is absolutely no evidence that Judge Reade is anti-semitic. She has a reputation as a strict judge and she strictly followed the federal sentencing guidelines, as is her wont. The problem is not with her; but with the severity of the guidelines.
As we approach the Yemei Hadin, we should all learn mussar from this tragedy.
1. We must not break the halachos of financial dealings. (It is forbidden to deal dishonestly with a goy just as it is with a yid  212; Shulchan Aruch C.M. 231 #1 , Rambam Hilchos Geneivah 7 #8 . Rambam even calls it *to’eivah*!).
We must not make a chilul Hashem.
3. We must not violate the dina demalchusa.
Remember: What is the first question that we are asked after 120 years?
Im not qualified to comment on the level of law broken or not. However, from a logical POV the justice system in the USA is severely broken. I read articles all the time of murderers being let off or being sentenced to much shorter terms than Rabashkin. Also, people who intentionally robbed people of much more money than was involved in the Rabashkin case (money that he did not even steal but aledgedly leveraged), and those people got fines and no time or 4 years and small fine… Something is broken here and its a shame. How can America consider itself a beacon of justice and righteousness when its own legal system has no fairness?
While I am no attorney nor do I profess to know who would have provided better representation for Mr Rubahkin, I am certain that he could have secured better legal counsel than he did. He should have had the best in the country and he did not! However, having said that we must not loose sight that none of this would have taken place had he operated his business according to the law. While he was not convicted on the illegal workers charges, there were undocumented workers present when the raid took place and he did allow questionable financial practices to occur. The raid was precipitated by DOJ based on the undocumented workers. The fraud charges came later. Why do we think that we are above the law? Not only should we not break the law, we should be able to show the goyim that we follow the Torah which specifically prohibits this repulsive behavior. The major pint is that had he conducted himself in business as he does in religious life none of this would have taken place. No doubt he received an unfair sentence and may Hashem grant compassion to those who have the ability to reduce his sentence. Taking public assistance while being fully employed is the same FRAUD.
I’m not an attorney, but isn’t it immoral for Nate Lewin to keep encouraging SMR that he can win in the Supreme Court? I read a letter that SMR wrote to his family and he is telling them he can be home by Rosh Hashanah. This is in 17 days.
I hope everyone can learn from his misdeeds and mistakes and teach their children how to live according to Torah, in business dealings and in personal dealings. He’ll have time to think about these things in jail and we should do the same. His wife might want to do the right thing as well, and sell off the silver and everything accumulated during his reign at Agriprocessors and donate the proceeds to tzedaka. Then maybe they’ll get a miracle at some point.
I have no contempt for the man whatsoever, I just won’t defend his actions as they were against halacha and the law here in America.
Grow some brains. SMR needs to start acting CONTRITE. He is NOT a victim. The victim in this case are the wonderful Dierberg Family of St. Louis, the owners of the bank Rubashkin defrauded. Wonderful Jewish family with deep communal and charitable roots yet no one in BP knows their name or cares that they exist. They lost 27 MILLION dollars while Rubashkin was billing meat to Zoldan’s on 13th Avenue.
Rubashkin’s only chance now is a presedential pardon and it will probably take the second term of the next president to get there. But that doesn’t mean pressure can’t be put on Obama. He could pardon the man tomorrow if he wanted – it will require hard lobbying and a definite show of remorse and contrition on SMRs part – two things he is sorely lacking. If Nat Lewin were half as good a lawyer as he thinks he is and honest (an oxymoron for sure) he wouldn’t take another penny because this case will not get cert at SCOTUS and it will not get en banc review in 8C.
So posers like Sandra can whine all they want it won’t affect me one bit.
Shaul, a long time ago I gave up and stopped arguing with idiots, it will not change one iota.
“six attorney generals have agreed that this is a travesty of justice”
There you go again, distorting history just like a holocaust denier.
6 attorneys general objected to a LIFE SENTENCE. Thats it and thats all. SMR DID NOT GET A LIFE SENTENCE. They said that a life sentence would be a travesty of justice. This was back when the feds were looking for SMR to be sentenced to life. But then, in a genius move that made Cook look like a limp noodle, the feds refiled their recommendation to 25 years, thus completely obviating the attorney generals letter. So you are plain and simple either a liar or grossly inept at reading English – the attorneys general letter you referred to was specific in what it said vis a vis the sentencing guidelines and how they applied to Rubashkin IF HE GOT LIFE. They NEVER defended what Rubashkin did and they were unanimous that jail was warranted. The letter specifically was critical of the feds for seeking life, and they revised that position, plain and simple. You are wrong once again.
Funny how the Rubashkin supporters are all such big believers and baalei bitachon yet they can’t accept that if Rubashkin is in jail for 27 years, maybe that’s the ratzon Hashem?
I don’t understand.
Are people here still claiming that Rubashkin is innocent?
#111 You say “I don’t understand”
– that is correct,
The case for Rubashkin is not inferring he is innocent or perfect- it is stating he is a first time white collar offender that was given an excessive sentence, given his life history and character.
Advocacy is requesting a fair and impartial trial.