Sentencing postponed for Sholom Rubashkin; Child labor trial continues

by Sharon Drahn,
Postville Herald

A Federal judge has postponed the sentencing of Sholom Rubashkin on the Federal fraud charges he has been convicted of. Rubashkin was to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids Thursday, May 27; however, Judge Linda Reade has rescheduled the sentencing for June 22.
Rubashkin was found guilty on 86 counts of bank fraud and money laundering in the federal case. Prosecutors have asked for a 25-year sentence while the defense has asked for a six-year sentence.

CHILD LABOR TRIAL CONTINUES
Meanwhile, Rubashkin is on trial in Waterloo on 83 state counts of child labor violations connected with the former Agriprocessors, Inc. meat packing plant.
One of the final witnesses for the prosecution last week was Brian Griffith. Griffith said when child labor inspectors toured the plant, he grabbed two workers who appeared to be underage and hid them in the basement. He said he did so under orders from a supervisor, Jeff Heasley.
Griffith said he also signed a document that said there didn’t appear to be any workers under the age of 18 working in the plant. One of the workers he sent to the basement was Mario Perez Marroquin, whom Griffith described as one of his best workers.
When he testified, Marroquin said he held a summer job at the plant hauling heavy barrels of beef and beef products. He added that several of his friends, who also attended school in Postville, were employed at Agriprocessors as well.
Marroquin, who also played soccer at Postville High School, returned to school after the immigration raid and is listed as a graduate of Postville High School.
Supervisor Matt Derrick has been identified as one of the State’s most incriminating witnesses. He testified that he told Rubashkin about all the minors at the plant, and that he received death threats for doing so. He said he received an e-mail which ordered him to obtain false documents for workers. He said most of the 40 employees in the meat cutting department were minors.
Among the first witnesses called by the defense was Toby Bensasson, who was employed by Agriprocessors as a controller. He said he had several conversations with Sholom Rubashkin about the importance of keeping minors out of the kosher slaughterhouse.
Bensasson, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to making false statements to a bank, is to begin a 41-month prison sentence this month. In his statement during the child labor trial, Bensasson said the company would lose its insurance coverage if minors were discovered to be working at the plant. He recalled personally dismissing a girl under the age of 18 after being alerted by a human resources employee that a young girl was working there.
One of the final witnesses for the week was Moses Weissmandel, a witness for the defense. Weissmandel, a former supervising rabbi at Agriprocessors, said he walked the entire plant once a month and never saw anyone working that appeared to be under 18.
The defense also spent much time going over the various forces working against Agriprocessors, including unions, liberal Jews, PETA and the Catholic Church in Postville.
An orthodox Jewish man from Minnesota said he toured Agriprocessors in 2006 and he, along with a federal safety inspector, found no violations.
Deputy Iowa Attorney General Thomas Miller said OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) challenged the finding as they cited the plant for failing to train employees to assist in an orderly and safe evacuation.
Also during proceedings last Thursday, defense attorney Mark Weinhardt showed  a series of pictures of Latino workers to a state criminal investigator and the jury. He asked Jon Turbett, an agent with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, to guess the ages of the laborers. Turbett was right about 50% of the time.
The lawyer suggested Rubashkin was being prosecuted for not being able to tell the ages of people wearing hard hats and frocks. DCI Agent Turbett countered by saying said he never used a photo as the only basis for establishing the age of anyone in the case.
Along the same line of questioning, a former Agriprocessors security director said he never saw anyone walk into the plant that he thought was under the age of 18. The guard, Cletus Pladsen of Waukon, said everyone had to walk past him to enter the plant where he was employed for nearly a decade.
The defense has argued the State failed to prove Rubashkin knowingly hired underage workers or was told of any decisions to hire minors by other managers. However, the State argued it is only their job to prove Rubashkin concealed or permitted minors to work in the plant, which could have happened after minors were already employed there.
Court was expected to resume Tuesday, June 1 following the Memorial Day holiday.