US Attorney Talks About Rubashkin

“The goal of this case was to prevent future crimes like this, as well as to punish Rubashkin,” Rose said. “This case was important for those that are taking advantage of and employing illegal immigrants but all of that got lost with this other stuff. We are hoping the appeal process will correct some of that.”

U.S. attorney reflects on complicated cases
by Trish Mehaffey • The Gazette

CEDAR RAPIDS — U.S. Attorney Stephanie Rose said her first year in office taught some valuable and at times, frustrating lessons, as she wrapped up some big cases — some which had been pending for years.

Rose was appointed as the first female U.S. Attorney in Iowa last November. But she didn’t have much of a “honeymoon” phase in her new role, taking some harsh criticism over one of the most publicized immigration cases the office has ever prosecuted.

Former Agriprocessors vice president Sholom Rubashkin, 50, of Postville, was convicted by a jury in 2009 of 86 bank fraud counts. He was sentenced last June to 27 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $26 million in restitution. The charges stemmed from the 2008 immigration raid at the Postville meatpacking plant, where more than 400 illegal workers were arrested.

Rose said the Rubashkin case was frustrating for her because his conviction and wrongdoing were overshadowed by accusations of wrongful prosecution.

“The defense put out many facts that were not accurate and any attempt we made to tell the truth … it just didn’t help, so we stopped,” Rose said.

Rubashkin’s lawyers argued U.S. District Chief Judge Linda Reade unlawfully presided over his trial because she was involved in planning the immigration raid.

“The goal of this case was to prevent future crimes like this, as well as to punish Rubashkin,” Rose said. “This case was important for those that are taking advantage of and employing illegal immigrants but all of that got lost with this other stuff. We are hoping the appeal process will correct some of that.”

Another case that had been pending for a few years in the district involved a former Cedar Rapids landlord, Robert Miell. Miell, 56, was convicted in 2009 but wasn’t sentenced until last September. He received 20 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $728,000 in restitution.

Rose said Miell’s case was important because it affected many in the area.

Miell was at one time the largest landlord in Linn County. He pleaded guilty to 18 counts of mail fraud and two counts of perjury and was found guilty by a jury in January 2009 of two counts of tax fraud. The charges stemmed from fraudulent reports to American Family Insurance and a damage deposit scheme against tenants.

Rose said closing these time consuming, complicated cases allowed her assistants to get back to the more typical cases in the district, such as drug and gun crimes, child pornography, various frauds and bank robbery.

“There was a lot of rebalancing and growth for the office,” she said. “We were always operating in crisis mode because we weren’t fully staffed.”

In the last few years, some of the assistants have been on leave for several months at a time for military duty or for other special assignments with the Department of Justice. All are now back except for C.J. Williams, who will be gone for nine months on special assignment.

Comments

[WoolSilkCotton]

++ "...The defense put out many facts that were not accurate and any attempt we made to tell the truth … it just didn’t help, so we stopped..." ++

The frumma tactic, both there and here on FM, is to repeat the lies often enough until you wear down the opponent.

[Yoel Mechanic]

WSC: this tactic you mention is a particularly galling one; and if so I hope it eventually is carefully documented (I presume eventually an academic historian will mull over the whole Agriprocessors history) I am unsure if one should associate the word "frumma" with this tactic, although I can relate to the sentiment that goes with this, what makes this a "frumma" thing to begin with?

[WoolSilkCotton]

Yoel, everyone doing this tactic on behalf of SMR is a frummer.

You are only kidding yourself if you actually think otherwise. If you are trying to protect the frumma velt by pretending they aren't the culprits with this tactic on behalf of SMR, you are being disingenuous.

[Yechiel]

WSC
A) The name of the game is protect your own; a concept not available to non "frummas". (BTW in Yiddish that would spell פרומא; no such word. The correct spelling is פרומע; in English 'frumme'...) People all across the spectrum side with family members. It is a natural and a given. The frum world sees each other as extended family (when one is in trouble politics gets put aside).

B) In the legal system everything goes and is acceptable. All lawyers are crooks on the right side of the law. They know all too well that many times their clients are as guilty as one can be, yet they choose to represent them in court. The object of the game is 'win'. That's all there is to it.
...איך ווייס נישט וואס דו ווילסט

[Aleksandr Sigalov]

All lawyers are crooks on the right side of the law. They know all too well that many times their clients are as guilty as one can be, yet they choose to represent them in court.

Yechiel, do you have any idea what lawyers really do in court?!? Do you understand why they are there?!?

Rubashkin is THE criminal, but even he deserves due process and unbiased judgement.

[Mr. Apikoros]

The Constitution of the United States, which is obviously a document which you're not familiar with, Yechiel, says that everyone is entitled to counsel.

Yes, I'm sure that in many cases the defense attorney knows his client is guilty. But defending him is not being a crook on the right side of the law, it's doing one's job.

You're an asshole, but I'll bet you already know that.

[IH]

A Yiddish translation of The Constitution of the United States is available at:

http://www.archive.org/details/nybc203501

some amendments are missing.

[WoolSilkCotton]

Yechiel, normal people in American society will help their friends and family who find themselves in trouble, but spreading blatant lies, distortions, and wild accusations of antisemitism to that end is unacceptable behavior for anyone.

People expect partisan circling of the wagons by narrow-minded ethnic and religious groups, but most members of civilized society find such behavior repugnant.

Normal people would tell their friends and family who find themselves in trouble to get a competent attorney and to follow that attorney's advice.
You can provide emotional support in private to such a friend or family member, but what we see from the frumme velt regarding Rubashkin is absolutely disgusting.

Yechiel, I thank you for the Yiddish correction of frumma vs. frumme; it's a fine point in the pronunciation that I was raised on which has eluded me for all these years!

An attorney's job, as Mr. A stated above, is to protect his client's rights and to defend him to the best of his/her ability as allowed by the law. When a client appears to be guilty as hell, the attorney still has to do the job, unpleasant at it may be. I don't fault (or envy) attorneys who have such a task.

Phsyicians where I work are called upon to take care of inmates brought to our hospital. We sometimes have to provide care to people who aren't exactly society's creme de la creme. Nevertheless, we have a professional job to do to the best of our ability, not unlike attorneys.

It is very easy to be a lawyer or doctor who only takes care of nice people. Accepting and fulfilling the challenge of providing care or service for folks who aren't so nice is what makes you a professional.

[Menachem Mendel lll]

Baruch Ahta Adoni.....for giving the US posecutuors the courage, wisdom and strength that made it possible for them to send out a strong message of deterrence that no one not even a politically connected multi millionaire frum fuck is above the laws of the great nation of The United States Of America and the laws of Hakodesh Brouch Who!

Oooomain.

MOSHCIAHC UBER ALLES!!!

[effie]

I have to say this PR blitz and attacks on the court are disgusting. I expect that type of behavior from european yahoos who troll death row for boyfriends.

[Yoel Mechanic]

OK, so it's a "frumma tactic" because the lawyers are frum. I think it unnecessary to make this a "frum" issue. There are far more likely reasons the lawyers are employing this tactic than that they are frum persons. Of course I am always open to rational arguments otherwise, but I just don't see this as a frum thing.

[Yoel Mechanic]

Mr. A. very good point, and thanks for taking the time to remind everyone of this.

[Yoel Mechanic]

WSC: well, I will admit one thing: baseless accusations of antisemitism are inexcusable..and support your argument. However, I am reluctant to respond in kind and attack them for employing tactics that are to be labeled "frum tactics". Perhaps it is more likely, without further information, to presume these are desperation tactics.

[WoolSilkCotton]

Yoel,

We saw the same ugly filth from Al Sharpton, Vernon Mason and Alton Maddox during the Tawana Brawley case and the Central Park jogger case.

Is this what the frumme have become?

While the frumme are not the only ones with a history of using such tactics, they have now chosen to use those tactics. People who call themselves upholders of the Torah and its virtues and values should be ashamed of themselves, but shame doesn't seem to be something the frumme have.

[WoolSilkCotton]

These same tactics were used since Day One of the Rubashkin matter. They are not desperation tactics. It's the frumme modus operandi.
Think back to Getzel Rubashkin's filthy lies, both here on FM and during his shameless press conferences.

[Menachem Mendel lll]

27 years should be more than enough time for "Rabbi" Rubashkin keyn shraybn a sefer toyreh and sell it on ebay for $45,000.000.

The proceeds can go to the US government to help pay off a fraction part of his fine.

I look forward to seeing my fellow Jew and convicted criminal doing something positive for once in his life while acknowledging his culpability.

Dream on.

[WoolSilkCotton]

MM3, brilliant as always.

The 8th Commandment, Thou Shalt Not Steal, will be replaced by Thou Shalt Steal.

[yidandahalf]

Which Satmar? The side that supports the Rubash-ins?

[yidandahalf]

Posted under the wrong thread.

[nachos]

MM3, brilliant as always.

The 8th Commandment, Thou Shalt Not Steal, will be replaced by Thou Shalt Steal.

Posted by: WoolSilkCotton | December 27, 2010 at 04:16 PM

I thought the eighth commandment was thou shall not kidnap. It's amazing how basic words get twisted.

[WoolSilkCotton]

So stealing isn't one of the Big Ten?

How about adultery? Any 'alternate translations' we can hope for on that one?

[nachos]

Woolsilkcotton:

Beleive it or not, I actually had this debate with an Orthodoox Jew. They claim that it is kidnap and not theft. Theft is covered by the other mitzvot. I beleive theft is the proper translation. Can anyone shed some light on this "controversy."

[Dayah]

Wsc, did youbforget that you were caught?

[Yoel Mechanic]

>WSC: We saw the same ugly filth from Al Sharpton, Vernon Mason and Alton Maddox during the Tawana Brawley case

Glad you mentioned this; I was thinking of them too, having read the article in New Republic way back then. Very similar, but here too, I would be reluctant to label their tactics according to the group identity of the lawyers. Key word is *reluctant*. Same case with the SMR Legal Defense team. It still could be desperation tactics as the situation of SMR did seem desperate from day one. To support your case further that these are 'frumma' tactics and a typical MO you would need to show these lawyers almost always use these tactics when desperate, and some how connect it to their cultural milieu. And even if so, it may not shed light or be helpful. Like I've said, I hope a book eventually will be written (as at least one book was written about the Tiara Brawly...dare I say...scandal) I hope level heads will prevail.

[Yoel Mechanic]

look it up; but "stealing" in Atzeret HaDibrot refers to "stealing" a person and forcing them to work for you. Hm.... ;-)

That you cannot steal objects should be obvious enough.

[A E ANDERSON]

I think the prosecutors opened the door to mischief by failing to present a simple, straightforward case. The "more is merrier" approach of incessantly filing superseding indictments, and being petty over matters such as bail made the government seem mean and petty and over-assertive.

They should have limited themselves to a handful of provable counts, and left out extraneous matters ("bank fraud") for another trial, another day. If the prosecutors really meant to use Rubashkin as an example for others, they should have focused on what area of alleged misbehaviour he supposedly exemplified. Instead, the indictment was a pastiche of anything prosecutors thought they could make stick.

The allegations of anti-Semitism are valid. Not that any of the trial participants were themselves anti-Semites, but that there existed an inherent, systemic bias against Rubashkin in otherwise white, gentile, clean-shaven Iowa, in which the Postville Hasidim had long been presented as aliens in the midst.

A venue change to New York would have provided a more representative and potentially less biased jury pool. The Southern District of NY is perfectly capable of convicting Orthodox Jews. What's more, I think the bankruptcy and ongoing business issues would have been better and more sensitively handled out of NY. Once moved to NY, I think the case would have focused more on what Rubashkin did rather than being a vehicle for prosecutors to act as the town babysitters and do-gooders based on whatever complaints came over the transom from activist groups or this blog.

[WoolSilkCotton]

++Yoel Mechanic | December 27, 2010 at 07:39 PM++

Level heads did prevail in the courthouse- and that's why SMR is serving 27 years.

Yoel, there is something disingeuous about your continuing to argue that these tactics are not the frumme modus operandi nowadays whenever a frummer crook gets caught.

Part of me understands your trying to stand up for your fellow frumme yidden, especially on behalf of the crooked ones, but at some point it's time for you to face up to the sleaze prevalent in the frumme velt and its leadership.

[FirstGenerationBavarianAmerican]

+++A venue change to New York would have provided a more representative and potentially less biased jury pool.+++

I'd be interested in the rationale for this statement. If I got nailed to sit on a jury case for some far-off jurisdiction, I would get mighty mad. The court pays less money per hour for jury service than Agriprocessors did for meat packing work. Why should I suffer financial loss? So if it looked like the prosecutors were not trying to railroad a guy, I would find for to prosecutors even the "iffy" claims as compensation for dragging them away from their families for a while.

[WoolSilkCotton]

Yoel, if you'd like a good example of a yid continually pounding away with lies, distortions, and half-truths over and over on SMR's behalf, look no further than our own AE Anderson, this time at 8:18.

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

Beleive it or not, I actually had this debate with an Orthodoox Jew. They claim that it is kidnap and not theft. Theft is covered by the other mitzvot. I beleive theft is the proper translation. Can anyone shed some light on this "controversy."

Posted by: nachos | December 27, 2010 at 06:16 PM

This is based on Rashi, whose one word comment on this is נפשות "souls, i.e. people." You shouldn't steal people, i.e. kidnap. How does he get this? All the nearby commandments are capital crimes, so how does mere theft of property fit in? It doesn't, ergo it must mean something more severe, like kidnapping.

Welcome to the rabbinic mind. Or the mind of a winemaker.

For some fascinating fictional albeit well-researched biography of Rashi, I recommend the three volumes of "Rashi's Daughters." Some great avodah zara in there too. I loved the mirror and the goats.

[OMG]

Posted by: WoolSilkCotton | December 28, 2010 at 09:01 AM

When I read your comment in reference of A E ANDERSON pounding away at defending SMR, a smile covered my face, after reading, A E ANDERSON 8:18 post, I said to myself, don’t reply, he is still in his delusional world. Believing that he could change opinions here at FM, at this stage of the game, when the postgame press conference was completed a year ago.

[Menachem Mendel lll]

Rubashkin will "drink no wine before his time."

[WoolSilkCotton]

OMG, I agree. Some folks will continue to spout their delusional drek no matter what information you'd present to them, and so I try not to bother answering the automatons.

[Yoel Mechanic]

>Yoel, there is something disingeuous about your continuing to argue that these tactics are not the frumme modus operandi nowadays whenever a frummer crook gets caught.

I am making a razor thin distinction influenced by that book "Anti-Semite & Jew" by J. P. Sartre (Everyone in the Frumma Velt ought to read this...wouldn't you say?) I'm encouraging _rational_ discussion, and making a point about attempts to imply that certain sleazy tactics take on a 'frum essence'. The tactics are sleazy, and if you think them common or even typical go do something about it (that's a special case where loshon harah is permissible) But judge by actions, and leave the essence up to mystics (if you happen to like mysticism) Of course it is quite possible I was reading an insinuation in your writing you never even dreamed of making, but there are other people reading what you wrote and they may not see it that way: they might think you are implying that "frumma tactics" is an expression that somehow when the frum do it, it takes on a "frum essence" and is totally different then when, say the Sharptons of the world do that. Of course, mystics will like that style: doesn't everything a Jew do take on a level of kedushah, even the bad things? Anyone imbued with Chassidus will think so, right? Well, maybe so, but I am just working on the rational plane right now.

[effie]

Brief of appellant due on 01/03/2011.

Appellee(s) brief due 21 days from the date the court issues the Notice of Docket Activity filing the appellant(s) brief.

Reply brief due 7 days from the date the court issues the Notice of Docket Activity filing the appellee brief.

Both sides have been granted permission to file over length briefs, i.e. 24,000 words.

Rubashkin hired another attorney by the name of Mark E. Weinhardt our ot Demoine.

[WoolSilkCotton]

More new lawyers = we need more new money

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

Weinhardt's website tells us how he won acquittal for SMR on one batch of charges

http://www.belinmccormick.com/documents/resumes/Criminal_Matters_4_5BC38CBD91C62.pdf

[nachos]

Posted by: Office of the Chief Rabbi | December 28, 2010 at 09:42 AM

Thanks for the explanation. Why would anyone put on their resume that they represent a guy that got 27 years.

[js]

the REAL definition of "fraud" in the Federal Criminal Code: Anything the prosecution wants it to be.

The prescribed sentence: Anything the prosecution wants it to be.

Immigration charges dropped? No problem - just go for fraud. Works like a charm. Then we can charge him with 10 counts of it along with three other crimes...all for one incident! When sentencing time comes, we can break out the chart and rack up 900 years for a victimless crime! yay!

telling the truth was just too hard for us..."so we stopped."

gotta love that.

[Rubashkin Supporter]

B"H

There are approximately as many as 20 million illegal aliens in the United States.

I don't think anyone should employ them but if you don't then what will they do to get food? To pay their rent? You can make believe they will all go back to where they came from but....what many of them will do is steal from you to get basic needs met.

The US government can't figure out what to do. Bush wanted to legalize all of them to allow them to work in factories, etc. like Agri... but congress wouldn't agree to the plan.

IY"H SMR will be out soon on appeal.

More than 40 Congressmen have already complained to AG Eric Holder. Support for investigation into what went wrong is growing.

Debbie Wasserman is a powerful congresswoman recently appointed by Pres. Obama to head the DNC.

If you want more details read here

http://www.collive.com/show_news.rtx?id=14326&alias=holder-grilled-over-rubashkin