Friday, March 26, 2010
Rubashkin attorneys take bail dispute to SCOTUS
Attorneys for the former day-to-day manager at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse lower court decisions that he remain in jail pending sentencing on numerous fraud-related convictions. Sentencing in the case is scheduled for next month.
The appeal was docketed March 15 on behalf of Sholom Rubashkin by attorney Nathan Lewin, a long-time friend of the Rubashkin family well-known in both Jewish and judiciary circles for his defense of Pres. Richard Nixon, U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, actress Jodie Foster and several prominent Orthodox Jewish individuals. Counsel has appealed directly to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who presides over the Iowa judicial district in which Rubashkin’s case is being heard, to grant immediate release on bail pending his sentencing and further appeals.
Rubashkin was convicted by a South Dakota federal jury in November 2009 on 86 of 91 possible fraud-related counts in conjunction with his actions at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, which was the location of a massive immigration enforcement action in May 2008 that both pushed the plant into bankruptcy and decimated the local economy. Although Rubashkin faced a separate federal trial on immigration-related offenses, the government dismissed that case with prejudice following the 2009 convictions.
The Postville raid remains one of the largest single-site immigration enforcement actions in U.S. history, and Lewin asserts that federal prosecutors have been overzealous in the Rubashkin prosecution from the start, submitting him to considerably more severe restrictions and potential punishment than other employers targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Lewin also believes that the judge presiding over Rubashkin’s case allowed prejudicial evidence of alleged immigration infractions into the fraud-related case.
Such perceived irregularities in the case continue to incense the Orthodox Jewish community of which the Rubashkin family is a part. Key among their questions is the government’s assertion that Rubashkin, a father to 10 children and prominent member of the Postville Jewish community, is a flight risk if he were to be granted bail pending sentencing and appeal. The latest blow to the Rubashkin bail hopes came in February when the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to act on petition requests.
“We are deeply concerned about the seeming pattern of overzealous prosecution in this case,” said Rabbi Pesach Lerner, executive vice president of the National Council of Young Israel.
Similarly, Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, reported that “the volume of e-mails and phone calls we have received about the Rubashkin case has reach a loud crescendo in recent weeks, as the full horror of how he is being singled out for harsh treatment has become strikingly clear.”
Those who believe Rubashkin has been treated unjustly have launched a new Web site to present their case, Justice for Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin. The former plant supervisor faces several decades in prison at his upcoming sentencing.
In addition to the federal case, Sholom Rubashkin, his father A. Aaron Rubashkin and other plant officials also face state charges of child labor law violations.
http://iowaindependent.com/30874/rubashkin-attorneys-take-bail-dispute-to-scotus
The appeal was docketed March 15 on behalf of Sholom Rubashkin by attorney Nathan Lewin, a long-time friend of the Rubashkin family well-known in both Jewish and judiciary circles for his defense of Pres. Richard Nixon, U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, actress Jodie Foster and several prominent Orthodox Jewish individuals. Counsel has appealed directly to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who presides over the Iowa judicial district in which Rubashkin’s case is being heard, to grant immediate release on bail pending his sentencing and further appeals.
Rubashkin was convicted by a South Dakota federal jury in November 2009 on 86 of 91 possible fraud-related counts in conjunction with his actions at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, which was the location of a massive immigration enforcement action in May 2008 that both pushed the plant into bankruptcy and decimated the local economy. Although Rubashkin faced a separate federal trial on immigration-related offenses, the government dismissed that case with prejudice following the 2009 convictions.
The Postville raid remains one of the largest single-site immigration enforcement actions in U.S. history, and Lewin asserts that federal prosecutors have been overzealous in the Rubashkin prosecution from the start, submitting him to considerably more severe restrictions and potential punishment than other employers targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Lewin also believes that the judge presiding over Rubashkin’s case allowed prejudicial evidence of alleged immigration infractions into the fraud-related case.
Such perceived irregularities in the case continue to incense the Orthodox Jewish community of which the Rubashkin family is a part. Key among their questions is the government’s assertion that Rubashkin, a father to 10 children and prominent member of the Postville Jewish community, is a flight risk if he were to be granted bail pending sentencing and appeal. The latest blow to the Rubashkin bail hopes came in February when the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to act on petition requests.
“We are deeply concerned about the seeming pattern of overzealous prosecution in this case,” said Rabbi Pesach Lerner, executive vice president of the National Council of Young Israel.
Similarly, Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, reported that “the volume of e-mails and phone calls we have received about the Rubashkin case has reach a loud crescendo in recent weeks, as the full horror of how he is being singled out for harsh treatment has become strikingly clear.”
Those who believe Rubashkin has been treated unjustly have launched a new Web site to present their case, Justice for Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin. The former plant supervisor faces several decades in prison at his upcoming sentencing.
In addition to the federal case, Sholom Rubashkin, his father A. Aaron Rubashkin and other plant officials also face state charges of child labor law violations.
http://iowaindependent.com/30874/rubashkin-attorneys-take-bail-dispute-to-scotus
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