Judge: No Mistrial

Attorneys for former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin twice filed motions for a mistrial Wednesday after a key government witness divulged details of illegal immigrants working at the company.

Judge in Rubashkin case refuses to order mistrial
BY JENS MANUEL KROGSTAD • WATERLOO-CEDAR FALLS COURIER

Sioux Falls, S.D. — Attorneys for former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin twice filed motions for a mistrial Wednesday after a key government witness divulged details of illegal immigrants working at the company.

U.S. District Judge Linda Reade rejected the motions, allowing the trial to proceed.

Defense lawyer Guy Cook argued that testimony about the alleged hiring and harboring of illegal immigrants at the northeast Iowa meat plant would result in the bank fraud case suffering a "death by a thousand cuts."

Defense attorneys took exception to the amount of details allowed, because Reade had split the trial into two parts.

Rubashkin is on trial on 91 fraud charges, which will be followed by a separate trial on 72 immigration charges. As part of the fraud charges, the government alleges Rubashkin lied to the plant's bank by failing to mention the company had illegal immigrants on staff. The charges stem from a May 2008 raid in which 389 employees were arrested.
In her decision to split the trial, Reade said allowing all charges at once could unfairly prejudice the jury, allowing evidence for one group of charges to be applied to others.

The development had a visible effect on Rubashkin, who managed a few brief smiles with his attorneys when he wasn't taking notes.

Cook accused prosecutors of cherry-picking the best evidence from the upcoming immigration trial to sway the jury. He called it a "powerful potion to pour in front of the jury."
Government prosecutor C.J. Williams argued he was limiting the amount of evidence to comply with the judge's order.

At the conclusion of testimony Wednesday, Reade reprimanded Cook for broaching the forbidden topics of possible union activity at the plant and the personal struggles of the Rubashkin family in an attempt to gain sympathy from the jury.

Reade said Cook was right "on the line" of finding himself in major trouble.

On Tuesday, former human resources manager Elizabeth Billmeyer testified in detail that Rubashkin, a former plant executive, knew for several years that illegal immigrants worked at the plant but did nothing.
Billmeyer on Wednesday said that instead of raises, she received one week of insurance premiums not deducted from her paycheck and additional cash payments from Rubashkin.

On cross-examination, defense attorney F. Montgomery Brown sought to blame Billmeyer for failing to discover illegal immigrant applicants.

"Someone was asleep at the switch for a couple of years, and hundreds of illegal aliens were hired," Brown said.

Laura Althouse, a former Agriprocessors payroll employee, corroborated much of Billmeyer's testimony that Rubashkin had direct knowledge of illegal immigrant workers at the plant.
Althouse said that the day before the raid, Rubashkin walked in and out of the office where she was re-hiring workers with new and false identification cards. She said Rubashkin took the paperwork back to his office.

On questioning from the defense, Althouse said Agriprocessors attorneys were present the morning of the raid to assist in the hiring process.

In May, Althouse pleaded guilty of conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants.

Comments

[concerned citizen]

Has the Birthday Party started yet?!?!?

[AGRI-vated Angel]

CC,

I'm not sure. They might have moved the 'Vodka Dew' party out to South Dakota as well.

One thing is for certain ~

The motion for mistrial was a huge 'fizz'le.

In other words, Atty Guy Cook sputtered sound much like the Mountain Dew & drunken party goers; then, Judge Reade 'flushed' the motion down the drain . . .

I think we should meet and have a drink of Grey Goose Vodka & Mountain Dew to commemorate the occasion. Grey Goose would be symbolic of SMR. On this, the anniversary of his release, his 'goose is (nearly) cooked'. Hence, Grey Goose Vodka Dews!

Cheers ! ! ! ! ! :)

[concerned citizen]

Does the trial continue tomorrow (Fri.) or are they done for the week? Have a nice week-end everyone.

[TheTruthAsItIs]

My understanding, Concerned Citizen, is that they will be taking Fridays off for Shabbats ( pardon my spelling those of the Jewish Faith)

There was no way Judge Reade was going to grant a mistrial on this. This is just the defense laying groundwork for later appeal.

I think the defense knew they were toast probably 2 or 3 days into this thing.... lol

I mean, seriously, did you all read where Judge Read admonished one of the defense lawyers for bringup up Sholom's autistic son in an effort to cultivate sympathy from the jury.

Isn't that par for the course - one scuzzball ( the defense lawyer) trying to get another scuzzball ( the defendent) off by using a fundamentally helpless child as a sympathy ploy.

What a crew.

[AGRI-vated Angel]

The Des Moines Register reported-[Cook told Reade he will file a motion Monday asking for a "directed verdict" on each count, or for Reade to find the case in the defense's favor]

I know . . . he must be a bit 'dim' in the head. (I'm referring to the lawyer.)

[juegos de estrategia]

nice inmigrant info, thanks for sharing it
greetings

[FirstGenerationBavarianAmerican]

Two versions of today's coverage of the trial by the AP's Nigel Duara:
From WCCO-TV:
http://wcco.com/wireapnewsia/Former.Iowa.slaughterhouse.2.1279189.html
From the Courier:
http://www.wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_ed85d2ac-c4d6-11de-add0-001cc4c002e0.html

[FirstGenerationBavarianAmerican]

There are a few versions of Nigel Duara's coverage of the trial today on the 'net.

[effie]

Posted by: AGRI-vated Angel | October 29, 2009 at 09:28 PM

It's a routine defense motion they have to make. However, it tells us that that the prosecution will be resting it's case on Monday or there abouts.

[AGRI-vated Angel]

Thanks Effie.

[Max]

I would expect the prosecution to put more people on the stand before resting their case including officials from the day school and KGS which were used to siphon off money due to the bank. It seems the prosecution is trying to establish that there was not only overwhelming evidence of bank fraud, but that there was an effort to defraud the bank through mis-information (not complying w state and federal regulations as required in their loan agreement).

[wondering]

isn;t it amazing that everything has to revolve around the jewish holidays & holy days, when the Rubashkins' had no regard for their employees religious days. One younger lady worked on the kill floor a number of years ago & it was Christmas Eve, getting later & she wanted to get home to her other children & get ready for church, but was told to keep working--she walked off of the kill florr & did not get fired. The Jewish ladies would call their cleaning ladies on Sunday & want them to come & do some little job for them & could not understand the word NO, but no one must interfere with their holy days, even for a trial, guess they would holler anti-semitism!

[effie]

It's pretty common in long trials for the trial court not to be in trial on Fridays. It has nothing to do with shabbos but instead allows the court to conduct other court business.