Wendy Runge Reports To Prison

The Minnesota haredi woman caught in the Iowa Film Office scandal reported to an Iowa state prison today to begin serving a sentence that could last as long as 10 years.

Wendy Runge

Wendy Weiner Runge, the Minnesota haredi woman caught in the Iowa Film Office scandal, reported to an Iowa state prison today to begin serving a sentence that could last as long as 10 years.

She got the stiff sentence after the judge in her case was shown Runge's public blog posts about him, prosecutors and the Iowa justice system. Runge basically called Iowa law enforcement antisemitic and insisted she was innocent – despite the existence of incredibly incriminating emails between her and a co-conspirator.

That, along with one of the most insincere guilty pleas ever, so angered the judge that he sentenced her to years more prison time than he otherwise would have.

Runge was following former Agriprocessors VP Sholom Rubashkin's defense strategy and was encouraged in doing so by her haredi rabbis and her community. They also claimed Runge's crime was a simple "clerical error," similar to Rubashkin's supporters' claims about overstating collateral on a $35 million loan being no different than telling a small white lie on a credit card application.

Her behavior helped Rubashkin raise more money that he otherwise might have, but did little for Runge – other than getting her locked up for as long as a decade.

She appealed her sentence three times, the last being to the Iowa Supreme Court. It rejected her appeal January 30.

Runge is married and has several children, at least two of whom still live at home.

Wendy Runge Posts.

Comments

[Moshe Aron kestenbaum, Williamsburg]

She should have stayed in the kitchen making haman Tashen , now who is gonna take her kids to the bus in the morning? What a shame and bushe oi vey a bruch of mein Krupp and touches, her trailer tuchus mouth didn't help her case, but 10 years? Common something is wrong here

[dh]

Another Rhodes Scholar heard from.

[S M L]

"...mein Krupp..."

???

[Simple Jew]

B"H

This is tragic.

Guess what-- the judge proved himself to be antisemitic.

[Adams]

She posted those rants under her real name?

[Isa]

If you are going to plead guilty...
One needs to get down on their hands and knees, beg and cry for forgiveness and all that. Even if it means placing a chopped onion in a handkerchief to get the tears going. Keep the act going!!

One does not need a law degree to figure out that ripping a trial judge before sentencing is not the thing to do.

I personally think she opened up a blog to vent her spleen with the idea it was 'private' HAR HAR HAR that blog was available to the whole planet! Her defense lawyer must have had a fit when he learned of that stupid blog. She took it down but not before the prosecution made copies and showed it to the judge who then blew his 'stack'
To sum up; a good consistent crying routine would have got her probation.

'Kicking' the judge 'in the shins' got her 10 years
What a dumb bunny

[dd]

what happened to the freedom of speech ?

yeah! rabbis encourage ppl to do acts that will get them into trouble . but they won't do it themselves .
this story should teach everyone not to listen to their rabbis , bc they are not the ones who are going to jail for a long time .

[balderdash]

simple jew; whenever you pop up, you make my day. i am able to praise the almighty that people like you exist and carry part of my jewish load for me. thank you, simple jew for your kind understanding of the burdens of being jewish.

[Heard Him Sing Once]

The real tragedy is that we as a society separate parents from their children for a

decade over financial crimes.

[A. Nuran]

simple jew, dh...

Anti-semitism? Freedom of speech? No. Felonious stupidity. A plea bargain isn't a right. It's an offer. Sentencing is still up to the judge. Repeated public insults towards him and maintaining your innocence after pleading guilty are not going to earn you Brownie points with him.

[Solomon]

A terrible tragedy compounded by the Charedi community's refusal to understand the meaning of such central Jewish ideas as Emet, Tzedek, Teshuva, Charatah, and Anivut.

[Jackeo]

Heartless: shmarya, i do hope you get aids

[dh]

Heartless? Shmarya gave her the only good advice she got. Obviously, she chose Door #2.

[Jake]

She doesn't need prison but a psychiatric institution.

[Isa]

Stupidity is not knowing that anything placed on the Web is accessible by all.

It is the same as on Yom Kippur on fasts etc etc etc and then in the bathroom eat a snack and check on the stock market on your cell, maybe even text your broker to sell/buy...
Do you think you can hide from ha-Shem?

Rules are similar for earthly court as they are for heavenly court

Forest Gump says it best
"As stupid is , as stupid does"

[Wool Silk Cotton, sports star and rock superstar]

Lots of criminals in prisons have fathered (or mothered) lots of children, sometimes with numerous girlfriends/boyfriends/spouses.

Maybe judges should release all criminals who have children.

In the mindset of the frumma, another frummer can never be guilty of any crime.

[Alter Kocker]

I just love the apologists. Nebech, she can't pick up her kids from school or nebech she can't make shabbos for her husband. SO HOW ABOUT A BIG NEBECH; She stole from the taxpayers of Iowa. BIG NEBECH; She was overt in slagging a trial judge.

Wendy Runge is going to jail for avarice and pure unadulterated stupidity. And by the way apologists, keep in mind that after all is said and done, Hashem himself denies you the right to steal, which is what Mrs. Runge did. She did not do this for altruism, she did not do this for the good of her people or to prevent a death, she did this so that she could line her pockets and got caught, then got pissy on the internet because she saw that the doors of the crowbar hotel were about to close her in.

Wendy-enjoy the next 10. You are not a good person, you are a thief, and the law of the land says that as a thief you will be denied your freedom. That is justice.

[simple jew]

B"H

I agreeof course bad move to publicly attack the judge - are sure she did that? Or was she mainly attacking prosecution?

Judge is thin skinned. It was not an insult in the court room.

Compare to that girl in florida recently that flipped judge the bird

He gave her 30 days for contempt. But that was in the courtroom. The judge RESCINDED after she apologized.... but she wasn't orthodox jew.

Why do you all think the judge is some kind of righteous gentile incapable of treating jews differently then a good christian?

Would you believ differently if the judges religion teaches him to treat non cchristians differently?

[Shmarya]

Posted by: simple jew | February 12, 2013 at 08:47 PM

You truly are a cretin.

What Runge did was perjure herself. She pleaded guilty and then left the court and posted on her blog that she is innocent, the justice system is biased against Jews, etc.

But you are so completely unintelligent, so completely dull, so very, very, very stupid that even something this evident is completely above your very ill-equipped head.

[can a haredi ever be innocent]

No Shmarya. Runge admittedi guilt to switching titles of movies so that the one she was actually using would be eligible for credits. If you recall, even as she pled guilty to the transfer she said she did it with the express permission of the top film official. All other charges of theft, inflation etc were dropped. She didn't "line her pockets" or get rich of any of this. Her blog,while stupid, did not say she was completely innocent. It said that all the other charges placed against her were unfounded. And even the one that she plead guilty too, was with express permission of a top official- thus leading her to believe that it was permitted. Why must you always assume the worse of people? When this all started, you yourself said you know Runger and that she is a nice person and you have nothing against her. Yet you insist on sensationalizing the story because she is Haredi. Let us recall the facts. She plead guilty to one charge. It was a switch she made with express permission . no one is denying that. All else were dropped. She expressed anger or frustration at the state for attempting to frame her with many other charges. The childish judge got insulted and gave her a pointless sentence which will just cost the tax payers more money. He could have very well taught this first time offender, haredi mother of 4 a harsh lesson by sending her to prison for 1 or 2 year. !0 years is preposterous. I am not a "frumma that doesn't believe other frummas can't commit crimes". I believe that Rubashkin was guilty of some of the charges against him (although the 27 years is also outrageous). I am not a staunch defender of every frum Jew convicted of abuse. But you are way off with Mrs Runge. It is possible for the state to get something wrong . And they did just that in this case (Please don't resort to immature name calling if you do not like portions of my post. Lets be adults)

[Shmarya]

Posted by: can a haredi ever be innocent | February 12, 2013 at 11:52 PM

Idiot.

They were dropped in exchange for her guilty plea.

The state had tried her on 5 felony charges. She pleaded guilty just as lawyers were going to give their closing arguments.

THAT is when the other charges were dropped.

To falsely imply as you have – and as Rabbi Chaim Goldberger has – that they were dropped because of lack of evidence, etc. is a gross misrepresentation of the truth.

[can a haredi ever be innocent]

Oh there we go, I got the idiot. Shmarya, if the state had her on all the other charges, why would they drop them in exchange for guilty plea? Suddenly they are so kind and benevolent.And again her blog after the fact did not counteract her guilty plea. She re-instated what she said all along. She was innocent. To her knowledge, the swapping of titles was OK. Tom Wheeler and the attorneys told her it was fine. You read in the newspapers an edited email that was to quote you grossly misrepresented and chose to paint her as a guilty greedy haredi. I know I know, I am an idiot, ignorant , irrelevant, a troll, sniveling and whatever else you want but I am also better acquainted with the facts. As I said, I know plenty of haredi Jews that are guilty of crimes. I am not in denial. Wendy Runge is simply not one of them . But it does make a great story for your haredi bashing agenda

[Shmarya]

You really are an idiot.

You can't plead guilty and claim you're innocent at the same time.

Past that legal fact, it is very common for prosecutors to offer and take plea deals, even in cases where they have overwhelming evidence.

You never know what a jury will do.

Runge was and remains guilty as sin. She could have gotten off easy if she had shut her mouth, behaved, and truly apologized.

Instead, she listened to idiots like Rabbi Goldberger.

[Boobie]

If you took her name out, any reference that she was jewish, frumma, haredi, and just a 'regular' woman, people (perhaps even on this blog) would be up in arms over this sentence. But, since there are vindictive people here, they want to bash her because of these exact reasons... I am not even mentioning her guilt or innocence...

[Steve]

I clerked for a federal court after law school. The judge did what any judge would do, Jewish or Gentile for any defendant, Jewish or Gentile. You cannot plead guilty to a lesser offense as a plea bargain deal to drop the greater offenses and then publicly proclaim your innocence while denigrating the court and trial system for having even dared to bring the dropped charges. It shows a contempt for the system and proclaims a complete lack of remorse. Any judge would have gone brought down the hammer. She would have gotten virtually nothing had she fully cooperated, groveled, become a witness for the State if necessary and then shown true remorse. But this? Not surprising at all. This is NOTHING like flipping a judge off at all. There the dropped penalty was for the mere act of the bird - not for a crime. Here there was a crime and the judge has discretion in sentencing to the crime she pled guilty to and he can fully take into consideration whether or not he believes she has shown true remorse and believes her excuses. He did not so believe and for good reason. This sentence has been upheld on appeal. This person was getting some very very bad advice or not listening to the advice she was being given. There was ZERO antisemitism here. Just hearing that excuse is nauseating.

[Fact Man]

Fact - Mrs. Rungee has been incarcerated. Is there an address to send her letters? If financial support is still required, where should it be sent? He said she said online bickering will not assist reality. Financial and moral support will!