The verdict in the Kosher slaughter scandal could put the culprit in prison for 1,255 years.
Rubashkin awaits bail ruling
By GRANT SCHULTE
Sioux Falls, S.D. - Sholom Rubashkin will spend this weekend in the Woodbury County Jail in Sioux City until federal agents move him back to eastern Iowa for more court hearings, a U.S. Marshals Service spokesman said Friday.
The former vice president at Agriprocessors Inc., the northeast Iowa slaughterhouse, was moved to the jail one day after his conviction on 86 felony business fraud charges. Rubashkin was taken into custody immediately after his conviction and sent overnight to the South Dakota State Penitentiary, a state prison in Sioux Falls.
Bill Kiesau, a supervisory deputy with the U.S. marshals, said agents will return Rubashkin to the Cedar Rapids area - he did not know which jail - for a bail hearing Wednesday in U.S. District Court.
A South Dakota jury convicted Rubashkin on Thursday on all but five of the 91 federal charges, after more than two days of deliberation. The maximum sentence for his combined convictions adds up to 1,255 years.
U.S. District Chief Judge Linda Reade denied a request by defense lawyers to continue Rubashkin's release on bond, pending a second trial on 72 immigration-related charges.
Defense lawyers Guy Cook and F. Montgomery Brown insisted in court papers filed late Thursday that their client was not a threat or a flight risk.
Rubashkin "remains steadfastly committed to his community both in Postville, Ia., and the larger religious Jewish community," they said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Deegan Jr. argued in court that Rubashkin might flee if released. Lawyers will debate his status at the Wednesday hearing.
Rubashkin was charged with bank, mail and wire fraud, making false statements to a bank, money laundering, and ignoring an order to pay livestock providers in the time required by law.
A sentencing for the 50-year-old has not been set.
News of the conviction continued to ripple through northeast Iowa on Friday. U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley said the verdict was just.
"This week's verdict allows the community of Postville to finally see some closure and marks an important step forward for our country's broken immigration system," Braley said in a statement. "Our government cannot allow employers to break the law and take advantage of cheap labor."
Sister Mary McCauley, former pastoral administrator at St. Bridget's Catholic Church in Postville, said she felt a sense of relief with the verdict. She commended jurors for "listening with open minds and hearts to both sides of the issue and then coming to a decision that they believed to be just."
She added: "There are really no winners in such a case since lives have been changed and dreams shattered forever."
[hat tip to yochanan iii]
2 comments:
so a man that puts a state on the map.. donates his time to a community is a threat to state?? in my opnion this man is made a sample of and his poor wife and kids will suffer.. he is not a risk.. the sentance was way to harsh!
he has not been sentenced yet...
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