Waterloo, IA – Trial for officials at the former Agriprocessors meatpacking plant is scheduled to start today at the Black Hawk County Courthouse, (as was reported yesterday here on VIN News).
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But one of the defendants, former CEO Sholom Rubashkin, has asked the judge to delay trial, according to court officials.
He is currently awaiting sentencing on federal fraud and money laundering charges. His sentencing hearing started last week in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids, but the federal judge said she won’t announce the punishment until May 27.
The requested delay for the state child labor trial will be addressed during a hearing this morning, as will other pretrial motions.
If the trials proceeds, jury selection will begin at 1:30 p.m.
Other defendants include his father, Abraham Aaron Rubashkin; Agriprocessors Inc. as a company; and human resources employees Elizabeth Millmeyer, Laura Althouse and Karina Freund.
Each faces about 9,000 counts of misdemeanor child labor law violations.
Beef production supervisor Jeffrey Heasley will be tried separately.
Authorities allege minors were able to work with toxic chemicals and dangerous machinery at Agriprocessors in Postville.
The defense said the workers submitted false dates of births to get hired.
Defense attorneys also allege state Division of Labor investigators knew about minors and the plant but refused to identify them to company officials, so plant officials couldn’t fire them.
Company officials had other terminated underage workers they found at the plant in the past, according to records filed by the defense.
The plant was raided by federal officials in May 2008 because of concerns about undocumented immigrants working there.
B”H
Oy this is Golus.
I”YH they will free SMR and put the prosecutors and govt investigators in jail
meditate on the hypocrisy of govt KNOWING which underage kids were working with “dangerous” chemicals but then doing NOTHING about it because they needed to build their case.
if it was so morally wrong or dangerous why did this Govt allow the 17 year old or 16 year old to work even one more minute let alone weeks months?
Are we actually trying to blame the State of Iowa for the children being employed at the factory? So what if they knew in advance of the raid — obviously, a raid has to be an extremely well-orchestrated event, and there’s no small amount of legal preparation. You honestly think a jury will blame them more than the employers, human resources people, managers, etc. who put CHILDREN into such dangerous and dirty work? I think this defense will hurt more than help, but I realize there’s not a lot one can do with charges like these.
I think he’ll make the same mistake he made with the other trial – refuse to take a plea deal. Public animosity to him and the others will grow.
Where are the posts where somebody, anybody, expresses concern for the underage employees? Would you let your children drop out of school and do such work?
In Iowa, at the time of the allegations, the standard for child labor was “willfully” hiring underage employees.
The burden will be on the prosecutor to show that the defendents knowingly hired underage workers.
The standard will change (and I suspect as a result of Agriprocessors) to “negligently” on July 1st. It is worth noting that the AG in Iowa wanted the standard to become “strict liability”, but was unable to get the legislature to take that step.
I would cry if I could. Work is a crime in the US today. That’s why Obama and the Democrats demand that illegals become Citizens. They are the only ones that want to work in the USA. The union workers all sleep on the shift and demand big wages and benefits. They work in two hour shifts. Two hours working and six sleeping in the back room or parking lot. Mexicans work ten hours and enjoy it. They are used to starving.