Postville, IA – “9,311 Counts of “Child Labor” Violations: A Modern Day Blood Libel?

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    Postville, IA – It seems that prosecutors are doing a lot of rushing to judgment these days. Not an innocent rush to judgment, but a libelous, diabolical rush to judgment that shamelessly and irrevocably ruins the reputations of innocent people, causing them and their families irreparable damage, heartache and emotional trauma.

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    To read the article from Yated click here

    A number of recent news stories have proven the increased aggressiveness of many prosecutors and the near lynch mob atmosphere they seek to create regarding their defendant.
    Prosecutors’ Dismissal of Identity Theft Charges Against Rubashkin Hailed as Victory and Government Admission of “Overreaching”

    On Monday, prosecutors dropped the identity theft charges – the centerpiece of its immigration violation allegations – against Reb Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin of Agriprocessors (Agri). The government cited the fact that a recent Supreme Court ruling determined that prosecutors who file identity-theft charges must prove that the defendant knew that the identity used belonged to another person. Knowing that their case was doomed and in response to a motion filed last week by Rubashkin’s lawyer, the prosecutors asked a federal judge to dismiss seven counts of aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft.

    Defense lawyer Guy Cook hailed the request as a victory for his client and a government admission of “overreaching in this case.”

    Similar Governmental Overreaching In Stevens and AIPAC Cases

    The Rubashkin case has not been the only recent incident of egregious prosecutorial overreaching. Last month, prosecutors dropped all alleged charges against 85-year-old former Alaska Governor Ted Stevens. Everyone remembers how the corruption indictment against Stevens caused him to lose his bid for reelection in the Senate, thereby ending a 40-year Senate career. The fact that charges have now been dropped, of course, will never reinstate his Senate seat.
    According to a report in the Anchorage Daily News, “The Justice Department moved to dismiss former Sen. Ted Stevens’ indictment on Wednesday, effectively voiding his Oct. 27 conviction on seven counts of filing false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms.
    “The decision by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder comes after a new prosecution team discovered a previously undocumented interview on April 15, 2008, with the star witness in the case that sharply contradicted the most dramatic testimony in the four-week trial. The information had never been turned over to the defense, the Justice Department said in its motion.
    “‘I always knew that there would be a day when the cloud that surrounded me would be removed,” Stevens said in a written statement. “That day has finally come. It is unfortunate that an election was affected by proceedings now recognized as unfair. It was my great honor to serve the state of Alaska in the United States Senate for 40 years.”
    In a written statement, Stevens’ attorneys decried the “corrupt” conduct of attorneys and the FBI in the case. “It was a bad judgment to have done so in the first place,” said Brendan Sullivan, the defense counsel for Senator Stevens. “He’s a war hero. He served in the Senate for 40 years, and he was the target of prosecutors who wanted to enhance their own reputation.”
    Two weeks ago, in another high profile case, Federal prosecutors abandoned an espionage-law case against two former AIPAC lobbyists, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman.
    The Atlantic Monthly’s Jeffery Goldberg put it succinctly when commenting on the government’s decision to abandon the case: “It’s about time. It was an idiotic case to begin with; the men were being prosecuted (under an ancient, seldom-used law) for receiving classified information passed orally – not even on paper – from a government stooge, and then passing it on to a reporter and to an official from the Israeli embassy. Rosen and Weissman did what a thousand reporters in Washington do every day – hear about information that’s technically classified. The only difference is that these two worked for a demonized lobby.

    “It’s a sad day for the Walts and Mearsheimers of the world, who believe that AIPAC is a treasonous organization, and it’s a sad day for AIPAC too, because it abandoned the two men to the fates when it should have stood by them.”
    With regard to the Rubashkin, the “Overreaching” of the prosecution in the identity theft case seems to just be the tip of iceberg.
    9,311 Counts of Child Labor from 25-30 Alleged Minor Employees?
    On the State level, prosecutors for the Iowa Department of Labor (IDOL) have also been guilty of egregiously overreaching in the child labor violations case, according to a motion submitted by Rubashkin’s lawyers last week. On September 9, 2008, a Complaint and Affidavit was filed in Allamakee County accusing Sholom Rubashkin and others with 9,311 counts of claimed “child labor” violations in Chapter 92 of the Code of Iowa.
    Rubashkin Attorney Monty Brown, who filed the motion, told the Yated in a telephone interview that the government alleges that there were between 25 and 30 child laborers working at Agri.
    When the Yated asked how an alleged 25-30 laborers could produce a complaint containing 9,311 counts of child labor violations, he explained that the government counted every day that each alleged child worked there and multiple alleged violations each day. The motion clearly charges that the government was using a “shock and awe” tactic that was certain to illicit maximum outrage.
    Those who were closely following the Rubashkin saga from the outset will no doubt remember that it was that indictment of 9,311 counts of child labor violations that caused a tremendous uproar in the press and in cyberspace, and, according to many, set into motion the ultimate bankruptcy of the company.
    The current motion, however, charges that the government, in its zeal to extract the ultimate price from Rubashkin, broke its own child labor laws, endangered the very children it has sworn to protect, and was guilty of outrageous government conduct, all, of course, to try targeting Rubashkin in the most derogatory fashion.
    The allegations put forth in the motion clearly depict that a prosecutorial blood libel has been perpetrated against Rubashkin. In many ways, it makes the prosecutors in the above mentioned Ted Stevens and AIPAC cases look meek…
    Agri Proves that it Previously Fired Underage Employees Who Lied About their Age…but IDOL Withheld the Facts
    Let us return to April 2, 2008, when the IDOL, claiming that they had information that Agri was in violation of child labor laws, was given permission by Sholom Rubashkin to search Agri for minors, without a warrant. Employees were interviewed, but at the end of the process Rubashkin was not informed whether IDOL believed that one or more employees were minors.
    In e-mail correspondence with the IDOL on April 28, Rubashkin’s lawyers said that to the best of Agri’s knowledge, there were no child laborers, and they asked if IDOL had any information suggesting that there were child laborers at the plant. In the e-mail, the lawyers wrote, “We all agreed that neither the State of Iowa, nor Agripocessors, wants minors working in Agripocessor’s facility. We asked for the names of those employees believed to be under the age of 18, so Agriprocessors could take appropriate action to terminate their employment. You stated that you did not want to provide those names.”
    In addition, Agri has documents of numerous occasions where Agri actually fired employees because Agri determined that they had lied about their age and were under 18 years of age.
    In effect, the motion says that, “It is provable that IDOL knew specific names or alias names in early April. When asked by Agripocessors to disclose the suspected minors to assist Agripocessors in complying with Chapter 92, IDOL refused.
    “Instead, IDOL continued with their investigation and presumed planning of their own ‘raid.’ Meanwhile, human beings known or reasonably known by IDOL to be minors were permitted by the State to continue employ with Agripocessors. The IDOL intentionally let alleged minors go to work at Agriprocessors, which is a prohibited place of employment for persons under age 18.
    “IDOL intentionally and knowingly let minors go to work at the location that Iowa Labor Commissioner David Neil later claimed, in immigration proceedings on behalf of one minor, subjected them to ‘blackmail,’ ‘extortion,’ ‘false imprisonment,’ ‘felonious assault,’ ‘hostage,’ ‘involuntary servitude,’ ‘conspiracy,’ ‘obstruction of justice,’ ‘peonage,’ ‘slave trade,’ ‘torture,’ ‘trafficking,’ and ‘unlawful criminal restraint.’
    ‘The IDOL’s investigatory conduct in this case constitutes outrageous governmental misconduct that violates Defendant Sholom Rubashkin’s due process rights. The people of this State entrust the IDOL to protect our children.
    “It is outrageous to continue to let suspected children earn $7.50 per hour in a packing plant while an investigation plods on. Particularly, when the likely reason includes a plan to develop a large workforce complaint so the State can assess more fines – money, from Agripocessors.
    “The IDOL willfully concealed from Agripocessors and Defendant Sholom Rubashkin important facts which were detrimentally relied upon by the Defendants. This willful concealment placed Agripocessors in a legal ‘Catch-22’ as Agripocessors did not have the legal right to guess at ages or fire employees en masse on mere suspicion. The Iowa Civil Rights Act in Chapter 216 prohibits discrimination on the basis of ‘age’. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits ‘age’ discrimination. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race and national origin. Agripocessors and Sholom Rubashkin had a right to rely upon the lack of reported findings from the search on April 2, 2008 at the plant.”
    There you have it. The motion says that the IDOL was so determined to get its 9,311-count indictment that they refused to let Agri try to comply with the law. Their clear intention was to be able to nail Agri with a ‘shock and awe’ indictment that would in effect destroy the company.
    This is exactly what happened.
    That is the ‘outrageous governmental misconduct’ that Rubashkin lawyers are accusing the government of engaging in. “The conduct is so shocking that due process values necessitate dismissal of the charges as a matter of fundamental fairness.”
    Who is David G. Neil?
    One more interesting point that bears scrutiny, which one person close to the case called a “blood libel” against Rubashkin and Agri, is the conduct of the Labor Commissioner of the State of Iowa, David G. Neil. Neil claimed in immigration proceedings against one minor that at Agriprocessors, the minor was subject to “blackmail, extortion, false imprisonment, felonious assault, hostage, involuntary servitude, obstruction of justice, peonage, slave trade, torture, trafficking, unlawful criminal restraint…” Aside from the fact that according to him, if Agri was doing all of the above, Mr. Neil himself committed the gravest travesty by letting the minors whom he knew were working there to continue working there, these highly exaggerated allegations raise questions of an ulterior motive on Neil’s part.
    Before assuming the post of Labor Commissioner of Iowa, David Neil was president of the Iowa United Auto Workers Community Action Council, between 1983 and 1985, and a member of the UAW since 1960.
    The Yated asked Rubashkin attorney Monty Brown if the fact that Agri was not a unionized company and had resisted becoming part of a union could have had any effect on the proceedings that were initiated by the Iowa Labor Commission headed by Mr. Neil, the former union boss, Mr. Brown responded that the motion was not against any particular person but rather about the facts of the case.
    Nevertheless, it seems that the question must be asked. In light of the IDOL’s extreme way of prosecuting the case, and in light of the fact that they knowingly put the lives of minors in jeopardy in order to present a ‘shock and awe’ complaint against Agri and Mr. Rubashkin, did Neil’s more than a decade as president of a union and more than 40 years of holding senior union positions influence the way the Department of Labor, under his leadership, prosecuted the case?
    It is not a comfortable question to ask, but in light of the many questions surrounding the prosecution of the Rubashkin ‘child labor’ case thus far, it is a question that any person pursuing true justice cannot afford not to ask.

    This article was printed on the front page of the May15, 2009 edition
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    86 Comments
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    the CPA
    the CPA
    14 years ago

    that’s alotta counts. i can count them.

    Count every minute
    Count every minute
    14 years ago

    Why didn’t they every hour or maybe every minute that would have come to a billion counts of child labor.
    I must say government persecution is getting out of hand. This country is slowly becoming a totalitarian state.

    Boruch asher yivtach bashem
    Boruch asher yivtach bashem
    14 years ago

    the ribono shel oiloim has unlimited ways to make miracles. Yeshuas Hashem keheref ayin. Rabim Machoivim Lerosho — and still that same rosho – vahaboiteach bashem chesed yevoinenaihu.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    I’m so sick of everyone trying to make the case against Rubashkin into a big antisemitic (blood libel) conspiracy….tying this into the the Stephens and AIPAC cases is equally absurd…out of thousand of prosecutions each year including dozens of high profile cases involving political figures and issues, there have been two big time screwups by the U.S. attorneys involved in the matters…that is not indicative of anything other than in the other 99 percent of the cases have been appropriately handled and the large percentage of those result in convictions or plea agreements.

    Askupeh
    Askupeh
    14 years ago

    And many here think that more government, more FBI, is the solution to every problem. Abraham Lincoln said that government is by the people, for the people, and of the people. Regarding the FBI we can say, it is by the special interest people, for the special interest people and of the unfortunate people.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    before it can be a blood libel it must first be a libel. Are the charges true or false?

    Dag
    Dag
    14 years ago

    Wait, Lipschutz is quoting a defense motion as a statement of fact????? Can I quote the indictement as fact too?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    NINE THOUSAND COUNTS?!?!?

    That’s utterly impossible!! I refuse to believe this.

    Dag
    Dag
    14 years ago

    Wait, Lipschutz is quoting a defense motion as a statement of fact????? Can I quote the indictement as fact too?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Yasher koach to the Yated. I”yh, this ludicrous case will fall like the rest, as well as the prosecutors and government liars who will do anything to destroy Rubashkin.

    Milhouse
    Milhouse
    14 years ago

    There’s nothing implausible about 25-30 minors presenting fake ID to get a job. Every day many thousands of minors get into bars with fake ID.

    But there’s another thing to consider: who says that all of these 25-30 young people really are minors? Everyone seems to assume that they may have lied earlier, but now they’re telling the truth; but maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe some or all of them really were over 18, and are now claiming to be 17, with their documents conveniently back in Guatemala or wherever.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Everyone who ever delt with them knows that they were not following the law of the land. They them self brought this on them. It may be sad but let be a wake up call to all of us. Follow the law and you won’t have any problems

    Oy Gevald
    Oy Gevald
    14 years ago

    Good article. Only problem it was Rubashkin himself who while in court over the unionizing battle claimed that he was exempt due to all his illegal immigrants he was employing. Seems like you can’t have it both ways!!!
    I said it once, I’ll say it again. Sad, very sad.

    Thank you
    Thank you
    14 years ago

    Thank you Yated for standing up and saying the truth. Slowly the house of cards that was used to destroy Agri, the Rubashkins, and the good people of Postville, is becoming unraveled. The people who waged war against them in comments on this and other blogs have some atonement to do. When I and others tried to speak up in their defense and encourage others to give them the benefit of the doubt and to consider the hard-rock judicial value of ‘due process,’ we were always harshly attacked for ‘ignoring the fact’ that they committed identity theft/fraud (which the court has now discarded!), and 9,000+ ‘counts’ of ‘child labor’ violations (which are beginning to be shown for what they were).

    If you have a conscience, start pounding a big ‘al cheit’ before it is too late.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    It’s hardly a blood libel. They knowingly employed illegal aliens and children. They even helped them create false identities. This was all in the news, and one can even glean these facts from Stephen Bloom’s book. All I can say is this: he broke the law, and now he’s paying for it. It’s as simple as that.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    The many dropped charges certainly bring into question did the frum community rush to condemn prematurely. Most who employ househeld help, do so “off the books” and are often hiring illegal aliens. The Rubashkins deserved the benefit of the doubt – they are good people. \\Sad that so many are Miskabed be-kalon chaveiro!

    Postville yid
    Postville yid
    14 years ago

    we need to be thankful to the yated and ask all the jewish media to realise the churban that has been brought and why they were not investigating the story better we need real journalism

    chai
    chai
    14 years ago

    Agri will prevail! And the government will fail!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Did anyone see today the story on CNN about a guy who was on the death peanlty row, was cleared by DNA test 22 years later?

    PMO
    PMO
    14 years ago

    I have a few points (as usual)
    1. Stevens was let off the hook by the that dumb bimbo Alaska governor behind the scenes. The facts still show he got a ton of work done for free. Losing his seat was enough punnishment for him anyway. What good would come of prosecuting him at that point? He is 80-something years old, and out of office.

    2. Rubashkin is NOT innocent. He may be not guilty of SOME of the charges initially filed against him, but that does not mean he is 100% innocent…. far from it actually.

    I know there are those of you who will embarass every inelligent yid on the plant by standing up and crying “antisemitism” every time a seemingly frum yid is arrested… I get it… However, Rubashkin DID break the law, and he will unfortunately have to pay the price for it. That has how a free society works.

    abi gezint
    abi gezint
    14 years ago

    my instincts were right when this all started, there was a witch hunt going on here against agri, perpetrated by a bunch of antisemiths that couldent bear the fact that some funny looking chossids became so comfy in there white clean state , and dont forget t union mobsters u can allways count on them. and so it hurts me so much that some of our own on this very blog took sides with that sworen enemy, i can c clearly the divrie chazal YISROEL KESHHIEN BACHDUS AIN IMA YECHOILEN LAMOID we shall really try harder.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Hey, if there are any lawyers out there with time on their hands, kindly bring charges against IDOL for aiding and abetting a criminal.

    Dag
    Dag
    14 years ago

    The Identity theft charges were dismissed based on a new USSC ruling? What did the USSC find and why?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Is there no such thing as prosecutor miscoduct in the American criminal legal system?

    Meatloaf
    Meatloaf
    14 years ago

    1) The number of children picked up during the raid was I believe 53. These kids worked first shift. The vast majority of kids worked the night shift cleaning the plant. Thus the number of children found was only a partial representation. Best estimates are that there were more then 110 child workers at the plant. Put another way, over 10% of the wortkforce at Agri were underage.
    2) It is the obligation of the employer to verify the age and legal status of his employees. When the Iowa Dept of Labor notified Agri that they suspected this to be a problem, Agri refused IOSHA access to the plant and records. IOSHA was told to get a serach warrant if they wanted to enter the premises.
    3) Violations of child labor law are a misdomeanor in Iowa. In order to make this a meaningful penalty that would deter others the Iowa Dept of Labor charged Agri for each day worked by a minor for one year. They could have charged Agri for 2 to 3 years or equal to the the real time each child worked at the plant. In other words, Iowa Workfoce went easy on the Rubashkin’s in not charging them to the full extent of the law.

    Gadolwannabe
    Gadolwannabe
    14 years ago

    It’s time we Jews stopped crying “wolf” everytime a Jew is the subject of some govenmental investigation or prosecution. Jews have never had it better than they have it now in the US. We have more civil and human rights than at any time in our history, and that includes when the Bet Hamikdash was standing.

    Prosecutors make mistakes. That is the nature of the criminal law process. They don’t always get it right and some innocent persons, Jew and non-Jews alike suffer. But not every prosecution of a Jew is motivated by anti-semitism. In fact, I would be so bold as to say that NO prosecution of a Jew in the US in the last 25 years was motivated by anti-semitism, and that includes Jonathan Pollard. (Notwhithstanding what Rabbi Pesach Lerner says, Pollard must have really been responsible for the death of many CIA agents for him to still be sitting in prison after 20 years). So, let’s give it a rest and try to keep our fingers out of the cookie jar.