Cedar Rapids, IA – A federal judge will allow convicted former Agriprocessors vice president to be evaluated by a Maryland psychiatrist in the Linn County Jail on Thursday.
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U.S. District Chief Judge Linda Reade signed the order today to determine whether there are any psychological matters that could be an issue at sentencing for Sholom Rubashkin.
Rubashkin, 51, of Postville, was convicted by a jury in November on 86 counts of bank fraud and other charges. A sentencing date hasn’t been set. The charges stem from the May 2008 immigration raid at the former Postville meatpacking plant where more than 389 illegal workers were arrested and charged.
Defense attorneys filed the motion for the evaluation, asking the court to allow the evaluation to determine if any mental conditions exist that might mitigate Rubashkin’s punishment. Rubashkin faces hundreds of years in prison.
Dr. Susan Fiester, a forensic psychiatrist from Silver Springs, Md., will examine Rubashkin.
My heart breaks for Sholom Rubashkin. Period. It was just a few short weeks ago that we tried so hard on his behalf, but now he is almost completely forgotten and
surely depressed w/o any hope in sight for him…..
Oy oy oy what this man is going through.
Aibershter!!!!!
its all very tragic him being in prison and i do feel sorry for his family,but the question remains was he doing all these illegal things?because if so then why is there a massive pr campaign to show that hes a fantastic guy and can everyone contribute their hard earned dollars to his lawyers fees.I have a big moral problem with this.Him,dwek,ezagui have all (allegedly)commited big crimes but then we all hav to pay to get them out of prison.Isnt it “do the crime pay the time”?
Rubashkin watched scenes of terrified animals with their tracheas hacked from their necks, struggling to their feet in agony, and pronounced, “This is shechita in its full glory.” He lacks the capacity for empathy or is completely delusional.
They R looking for a loop-hole in senticing, face it he is going in for the rest of his life!!
The others who you mentioned knowingly and willingly went to screw the system.
Mr Rubashkin was attacked with a federal raid and put every cent he owned to rehabilitate his business. Everything went downhill from there. With out the federal raid the man would be fine.
According to many fine legal minds the fedral immigration charges were dropped as there was no solid evidence against him.
In conclusion there is a drive to raise money for Mr Ezagui.
shame on u #5 & 6.
no matter what the case is it’s very tragic to see a father of a big family being punished in such a manner.
if u feel that he deserved what he got then be happy and shut up, but why make it harder for so many others who feel this as a personal disaster?
The lack of rachmanus evident from certain posts is horrible, are we not a nation of rachmanim? I don’t know mr rubashkin , but my heart goes out for this poor man, there are lots of us who do or did things just as bad as his, the reason he is in this mess, is because of peta and his unions brought him down, the lease we can do is show sympathy, not like some of these heartless posts (whom I question their jewishness altogether)
To Anonymous – #4 & #5 ;
How dare you lump this person in with criminals that ruined other peoples lives solely for their own benefit. What crime did Mr. Rubashkin commit? All he did was try to make kosher meat affordable and available to the masses. The government brought irresistible force to bear against him, to make him a scapegoat for all of the illegal immigration in this country. When he took liberties with some of the terms of his bank loans, in an effort to stay afloat in spite of the government prosecution (persecution?), they prosecuted him for that too! No one gave him government loans, bailout money, executive compensation packages, etc. All they did was use the full might of the government for selective prosecution, to run him into the ground. To #5 , your battle is with the Al-mighty himself. You condem Mr. Rubashkin for following the laws of Shechita; why don’t you adress your complaints to the Al-mighty, who ordained the laws of Shechita?
BH, SMR is in fact, a man of incredible emuna, as are his eishes chayil and precious children, its beutiful to see the show of support they have from most frum people- those who know the real story and not just excitedly believing the false picture portrayed.
The psychiatrist is the same one that testified that Lorena Bobbitt was crazy. I wonder how she’ll testify about Sholom Mordecai, who believe the Rebbe is still alive and is Moshiach.
lets daven for him who are we to judge
Before the raid there was enough cash flow to prove that he did not try to screw the system.
Most of the time the prosecutor backed his case with the illegal immigration which he was not able to prove.
Bottom line is that Mr Rubashkin is the only corporation that was raided to date for such ‘crimes’. Which are common in the meat packing industry.
Can we ALL just be honest here for once.
1. Rubashkin is 100% guilty of breaking multiple laws.
2. He broke the law with the absolute purest of intentions.
3. He is an honest yid who may have been too proud to ask for help before resorting to illegal measures – we don’t know.
4. The law requires imprisonment.
5. PETA has nothing to do with this. Nobody in law enforcement or the government cares one bit about PETA or pays them ANY attention.
5. The length of his sentence that they are discussing does not fit the crime, and someone needs to step up.
6. For all the talk of “liberals”, antisemitism and PETA and the like, lets remember that this was carried out by the FBI… which is the investigative arm of the Executive branch of government. They are beholden ONLY to the President. This raid happened with the full knowledge and approval of the White House under George W. Bush.
I am a believer that if you do the crime, you do the time. However, the punishment has to fit the crime. The kind of sentence they are talking about does not fit the crime at all. While I believe we are NEVER above the law, this is an abuse of judicial power.
I cannot believe the stupidity of some of the remarks here.
You want to deny the Yiddishkeit of someone because they do not have ‘rachmanos’ for someone that you like?
You want us to pity someone, not because he did something wrong, but because he gave tzedaka from stolen money and has 10 children?
Had the Rebbe been alive, he would have called in the Rubashkin family and given them a full dress down on business ethics and chullul Hashem. THis is a bizayon of everything the Rebbe stood for. He stood for honesty and truthfulness. He saw sparks of humanity and Yiddishkeit in everyone, but would not stand for outright dishonesty in the name of Yiddishkeit.
Shame on you. You will have to answer for this to the true Judge.
All that I can say from the little time I spent with r’ S.M Rubashkin even if was going to be sentenced to 1000 years in a dungeon he wouldn’t give up hope some might call him crazy I call him a good Jew the some times in takes a long time for the trouth to come out and trust me he’s going to do his best to way it out while doing his best to stay physically and mentally healthy