Waterloo, IA – The state trial of former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin will move forward, a judge said, despite concerns from defense attorneys about the local jail not meeting their client’s religious needs.
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Black Hawk County District Associate Judge Nathan Callahan also denied a defense motion Tuesday to delay Rubashkin’s trial on 83 misdemeanor child labor charges until July because of pre-trial publicity and new evidence presented to the defense.
The state alleges minors worked excessive hours and were exposed to poisonous chemicals and dangerous machinery while working at the kosher slaughterhouse in Postville.
Defense attorney F. Montgomery Brown said Rubashkin, an orthodox Jew, has not eaten since noon on Monday. The Black Hawk County jail had not offered kosher food that met Rubashkin’s stringent religious requirements, he said.
The county sheriff agreed to meet with a rabbi provided by Rubashkin’s family that will detail his religious needs.
When Rubashkin, 50, arrived at the county jail yesterday, guards initially had to carry him to around because he cannot walk without his yarmulke and religious undershirt, Brown said.
“I can’t represent a client that’s not going to eat,” he said.
Rubashkin walked in to court Tuesday wearing his usual yarmulke and black suit coat and pants. His family handed him a prayer book in Hebrew, which he read from aloud in the courtroom before the judge arrived.
Judge Callahan said Iowa law does not require Rubashkin to be present during the trial, so it will proceed without him, if necessary.
“I’m not trying to be disrespectful of anybody’s religious traditions or beliefs,” he said. “But I’m not derailing this proceeding because of his choice.”
Brown argued he needed more time to investigate several videotaped interviews because they were just provided to him on Friday.
The tapes show three potential witnesses, despite repeated questioning, telling investigators they do not know if Rubashkin knew underage workers were at the plant, Brown said.
Callahan said he may consider allowing the defense a few days to review the evidence.
Prosecutors said the trial should not be delayed because eight former underage workers flown in from Guatemala to testify are only authorized to remain in the country until early July.
Brown said pre-trial publicity from Rubashkin’s sentencing hearing last week on federal financial fraud crimes, as well as an article in Monday’s Des Moines Register, could prejudice the jury.
Only Rubashkin, who pleaded not guilty to all counts of child labor violations, will face trial on child labor charges.
Prosecutors whittled down the number of charges from the initial 9,201 to ensure the trial is completed in a reasonable amount of time.
Agriprocessors Inc. pleaded guilty to all counts, company attorney Mark Weinhardt said. Prosecutors have dismissed charges against Abraham Aaron Rubashkin, family patriarch and company founder, and Laura Althouse, a human resources employee.
Prosecutors told the judge they are working on an agreement with human resources employee Karina Freund and human resources manager Elizabeth Billmeyer that will be resolved in the next few days.
Aaron Rubashkin was present as a corporate officer of Agriprocessors, the company attorney said.
Jury selection will begin this afternoon.
Sholom Rubashkin was convicted in federal court of 86 financial fraud charges in November. Last month, he tearfully apologized at his sentencing hearing. Prosecutors recommended a 25-year sentence.
Ridiculous. “Because of his choice” ….because he won’t eat treif? Yeah, he is just being obnoxious…how dare he want to follow his religion… poor guy. This is such a mess
this what the article says
“Prosecutors told the judge they are working on an agreement with human resources employee Karina Freund and human resources manager Elizabeth Billmeyer that will be resolved in the next few days. “
yes so that they can “testify” against SMR what a chutzpah they dont let him go they need to paint him as a bad person.
and they knew what he needs to eat but they want to punish him mamash like 50 years ago in a different country.
how long can we suffer
This shows the obvious that it’s a witch hunt on shaloms life
nebach..!!!! how much can one yid suffer we all have to start doing tushva my heart goes out for him and his family
“The county sheriff agreed to meet with a rabbi provided by Rubashkin’s family that will detail his religious needs”
Why doesnt anyone know the meaning of ‘prison’?? If he had such stringant religious values, he wouldnt be in jail now, would he? NOW he is a big religous man? Dont eat!!
Sorry……i can’t take it anymore………i just can’t……..
I’m just about ready to vomit. They have obviously pinned him up on the board as a huge “monster” who needs to be destroyed. Anyone with a brain and eyes can see that this “child labor” trial against him is just a witch hunt.
Amazingly, they see it fit to dismiss the charges against all the managers, etc, the most likely people (if anyone) to have an inkling that some of these workers may have lied about their age. Are we really to believe that in a company of some 1,000 workers the top executive would know of this? But yet they target him and him only!
That’s beside the point that the entire charge is extremely trumped up. If these workers LIED about their age, how can you blame the managers??
(reply to #5 ) because that’s the law in the United States
I can not believe they didn’t offer him fruit (whole not cut)…If he turned that down, its his own fault. (He could use a napkin to cover his head to make a brocha.)
Can’t walk without his Yarmulka? B’Shas Hadchak one can walk without a yarmulka, although he couldn’t daven….Using these ‘religious issues’ as a reason to drop a trial is such Chilul Hashem…..
With the way they are dealing with this so far: dropping charges on anyone except for him (their preferred fall guy) and with this judge’s flippant and dismissive attitude to his religious needs, we can already see what kind of “fair” trial he will get.
This same judge is one of the few who performs gay marriages in Iowa, no doubt because he cares deeply about people’s rights, yet here he doesn’t seem to be to concerned, in the least, with this person’s religious rights.
Hashem will keep him and safegaurd him. My prayers go out to him and his family.
When job applicants present false documents (proof of age, immigration status, fake SSN), the employer is not allowed to challenge the authenticity of those documents because that would be a “civil rights violation.”
It is insane to cut slack to human resources and go after Rabashkin. He is clearly less in the know.
“…Prosecutors whittled down the number of charges from the initial 9,201…”
9,201 charges??? What did he do?–Blow up Times Square, and kill 9,201 people?–Are you kidding?
Isn’t it obvious that they’re just going through the big fat rulebook, in search of anything that can remotely be applied to their case agains Sholom Mordechai.
May haShem turn their evil plans on their faces!
כיון דאידחי אידחי
If they lied about their age, what’s to prevent them from lying again when they give testimony against smr?
And why were the charges dropped or in the process of being dropped for everyone except smr?
It all a smr-campaign-(smear campaign ).
Witch-hunt is an understatement!!! Aaron Rubashkin is present at the trial as a “corporate represenative? The others deals make any testimony they give suspect at best!!
The person who took over the company is a moron. iowa people are anti semites and someone to bail out the comany and reward the entire city as if business just goes on is a complete chutzpah to the entire klal yisroel and the Rubashkin family.
Everyone should boycot the meat coming from the former Rubashkin plant.
one think i cant understand we should take together all our brother and sisters and organize a major protest i belive there are enogh of our peaple feeling the discrmniation and ugly discust in this case ven peaple who understand that if there is a crime you must pay agrees in this case that this is a which hunt and they are dicrminitaing because they can get away with it we should get all the rabbinim involved and do a mass protes let the world know and see whats going on
Hello shaul from monsey I hope you realize you spoke way to soon, because this fiasco is far from over and its already getting to be real clear. At least the government knows they have one friend amongst us who will sell out another jew in the blink of an eye and could care more about a slight pain pinkie than what SMR is going through
>At least the government knows they have one friend amongst us who will sell out another jew in the blink of an eye and could care more about a slight pain pinkie than what SMR is going through< Make that two friends, counting me as well.
if halacha dictates that we can sell sifrei torah for pidyon shvuyin then forsure one can walk without yarmulka and tzitzis to not upset the judge. all smr is doing is ruining it for himself and other yidden who are waiting to be sentenced . SMR dont be stupid now !
It doesn’t say in the article that he didn’t get kosher food, it says he didn’t get kosher food kosher enough for him, it seems like he didn’t like the hashgacha.
there is no justification for those guards in the prison to take away his yarmulke or tzitzis.
If the only reason he is in prison is because they are afraid he is a flight risk, it really means that he should under normal circumstatces not even be in prison , so even the imprisonment should be more lenient than for convicted criminals.
If there is a central law about prisons and treatment of religious inmates , it should be consulted from the top to avoid this hunger and problems with tzitzis and yarmulke before they happen.
No jail or prison in the United States gives prisoners their choice of hashgacha in addition to providing basic kosher food. If SMR is deliberately trying to destroy whatever small element of good will and sympathy he may have obtained as a result of the excessive sentence requested by the federal prosecutors, he is being successful. Kvetching about not having the right hashgacha or walking wihthout his tallis katan is only going to make his situation even worse and he will have only himself to blame.
There is only one type of food a Jewish prisoner in America gets; it’s from the same place with the same Soloveichik hechsher no matter where you are sitting. If he refused the food given, it was because he was not given kosher food, not because he didn’t like the hashgacha. I work in the federal prison system and there is no variety when it comes to kosher prison food
DOES anyone realize that with all those charges/risky conditions ACTUALLY NO ONE GOT HURT?? tHE state seeing how beaten this man is comes now while the feds are taking a break in delivering the snetence, it really bothers them that these minors worked, c’mon this is just anit-semitism and the state of Iowa will get his punishment big time, save the yidden.
“No jail or prison in the United States gives prisoners their choice of hashgacha in addition to providing basic kosher food.”
So I guess being given meat from 2nd Avenue Deli or Miller’s cheese is OK for you? It’s kosher enough, right? I’ll pay & watch you eat.
This fasting thing is ridiculous. We always find food if we find ourselves on the road with no kosher establishments. He can eat fruit, vegetables and bread. No reason to try this silly hunger strike. People are thinking he’s one big joke. And I won’t even get into him demanding to be carried around.
One threatens the innocent who spares the guilty.
If ever there was an example of bigotry, this case is the epitome of bias against this man because of his obvious religious (Jewish) chassidic garb, etc. He has been selected out of hundreds of others with the same charges against them & who get away with no jail time or very little. It seems he’s a scapegoat, and is being treated as if he was, G-D forbid, an outright murderer. Unreal. This whole case reminds one of darker times in history.
According to US law, the buck stops with the top plant official. The CEO is responsible for all aspects of plant operation. To say that SMR didn’t know what was going on in his own business is not an acceptable excuse.
What is interesting is that Aron won’t have to take the witness stand. He is the epitome of the Teflon Don and the defense would do anything to keep him from testifying, because he could implicate the entire family and half the heshcher organizations in America. Magicians call this mis-direction: look here while I hide the real action elsewhere. Keep everyone focused on Shalom while Aron, Heshy and other family members walk.