Postville, IA – Federal prosecutors have agreed to drop identity-theft charges against a former Postville slaughterhouse executive in a light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.
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Prosecutors this afternoon asked a federal judge to dismiss seven counts of aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft, in response to a motion filed last week by Sholom Rubashkin’s lawyer.
Defense lawyer Guy Cook hailed the request as a victory for his client and a government admission of “overreaching in this case.”
Government lawyers said the charges stemmed from violations that could have prosecuted until the recent Supreme Court ruling.
“There is nothing ‘unfair’ or ‘overreaching’ about subjecting defendant Rubashkin to the same laws as others,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Deegan wrote in court papers.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that prosecutors who file identity-theft charges must prove the defendant knew that the information used belonged to another person.
Rubashkin was arrested last year on immigration, bank fraud and cattle-related charges, along with several other employees identified in what was then a 99-count indictment. The arrests followed a May 12, 2008, immigration raid at Agriprocessors Inc. that led to the arrest of 389 immigrant workers. The kosher meat plant also has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is seeking buyers.
Rubashkin also is among several employees charged with state-level child labor violations. He has pleaded not guilty to the state and federal charges.
Wonderful Lag B’omer news!
Zol Der Grosen Oibeshter veiter helfen
I am very glad to hear at least one little bit of good news. I am very much in favor of the Rubashkin family. I remember how the trucks from Tomcheei Shabbos would line up outside their store to get free chicken and meats to give away to the poor families. Very few of the comments in the past recalled those sweet and charitable times. I am glad for their little win and hope they have much more hatzlacha. Tzedakah tatzil mimoves and from other problems too.
I used to read different website stories similar in some ways to VIN. But they always kept my positive comments about the Rubashkins out. They never allowed them to be printed. I wrote many times and every time they published nothing. My guess is that the other place didn’t agree with my staements so they didn’t let anyone read them. I never visited that site again and that was more than a year ago.
Only VIN understands what free speech really is.
Great Lag B’Omer victory!
99 goverment indictments on the wall…. And if 7 indictments happen to fall, 92 indictments on the wall.
IMY”H, one by one, they are going to all fall off the wall.
r shemon helped ah BH all charges will be dismissed
Thank G-d!!!
in honor of the hilula of the rashb”i no doubt.
may this be the beginning of the end of the war on kosher.
May this only lead to many other wins and the main win the coming of Moshiach Now!
thank G-d. we should continue to hear only b’suros tovos regarding this case.
Awesome!! BARUCH HASHEM!!!
Gee! What a surprise! The government is actually wrong? And so we’re to believe that all the other charges are 100% legit?
This will be the beginning of dropping all the charges. Prosecutors took a half-deflated ball & ran with it. Maybe we’ll see the same thing happen to this over-eager prosecutor as happened to the one in the Duke lacrosse team case. Trouble is, the damage has been done.
Sholom Rubashkin should sue. Not that it will erase the pain of jail & defamation.
like they take off 7 years and 92 years lfet to be in prison
Mazal tov, SMR. Perhaps there is hope that all they are guilty of is poor judgment and mismanagement. Let’s hope it does not ride to the level of a crime that does not lead to a conviction.
They are reissing kriyah over at “The Forward”
it aint over till its over ,so dont get overly excited .
Solam is a big Ball Bitchon
We all lost. Since the story of Rubashkim, the price of kosher meat went up drasticly.
Dear #7 ,
I love Shalom Rubashkin as much as the next guy, but you are over-reaching here. The court ruled that when there is a genaivah you also have to know that there was a genaivah from a person. If the genaivah was from a non-person, just a false number, that does not constitute identity theft. The situation is tantamount to breaking into an airport locker and taking something out. If the locker is ownerless then it is not prosecutable. But this is not something that one should ever talk about suing for because the breaking into the locker and the taking of false ss numbers is essentially wrong.
what the gov is doing to him a yiddishe tate is worse than waterboarding these fanatics.
we all lost because meat went up ? I rather pay more and have him home with his family .
B’oruch Hashem. We should continue to hear only more good news, in this case as well as for all klal yisroel.
Tracht gut vet zein gut.
so shall they go from strength to strength, may the Almighty protect those that protected the poor and innocent. may SMR, who helped so many almonos and yesoimim, poor people, vulnerable people, meshugoyim and nebichs, receive his full and just yeshua that he so trully deserves.
Zol der Eibishter veiter helfen!
I think That SR lawyer is making a mistake about “in your face” additute with goverment. This makes them work even harder on the other charges. Rather he should be cordial to them and hopefully they will have rachmanus a bit!
b”h, obviously HE is in charge and HE has a lot more truths to reveal to all of US. Just sit back and watch a whole bunch of sheker unravel in the next few weeks. A lot of people will have a lot of teshuva and mechilah to be working on.
If this neis becomes complete, Sholem Mordechai you shall become a Bal Mashpia for Kellall Yisroel
Deena demalchuta deena. If the moneys are earned through illegal activities, then giving a portion to tzedaka is no mitzvah. It is like asking a sheila on whether it is mutar to launder money on chol hamoed – there is a big problem. Why do you think Rubashkin was less expensive then other brands – if not for breaking the law, underpaying, violating immigration laws, hiring child laborers, etc. That is not a war on kashrut – that is seeking an end to violations of the law. What kind of Ohr Lagoiim are we if we can condone illegal activity because the perpetrators give to tzedaka. Our federal prisons are fill of Orthodox white collar criminals. Halahkos of business ethics cannot be ignored. It is a shondeh.