Details:
Wrong title could impact case against Rubashkin, attorney says
By Trish Mehaffey, The Gazette
CEDAR RAPIDS — Sholom Rubashkin is the former vice president, not chief operating officer, of Agriprocessors Inc., the U.S. Attorney's Office acknowledged Monday.
Guy Cook, Rubashkin's Des Moines attorney, said Friday calling his client a chief operating officer implies he had certain control over the company and it could affect how Rubashkin is judged in his September trial. The government called him the chief operating officer in court filings and then the media picked it up and it just "snowballed," Cook said.
The mistake was listed in a change of venue motion filed last week in U.S. District Court.
Rubashkin is accused of 98 of 99 charges stemming from the May 12 immigration raid at the Postville meatpacking plant. The charges include bank fraud, money laundering, identity theft and harboring and aiding and abetting illegal workers.
The change of venue motion claims "extensive" pretrial publicity has infected the jury pool because it's been "inflammatory, accusatory and one sided." All the pretrial publicity has indicated that Rubashkin is the "mastermind behind all the bad" that has occurred at the plant. Rubashkin's role in the company will likely determine his culpability for the alleged crimes, according to the motion.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob Teig said Monday he didn't know why or how the government started using the chief operating officer title.
Cook said paperwork filed before last week's detention hearing, where Rubashkin and the government agree to stipulate to certain facts in the case, calls Rubashkin the former vice president.
In the original search warrant issued May 9 to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the Postville plant, Rubashkin is listed as the vice president.
In several other court documents, Rubashkin is identified as the person running the day-to-day operations of Agriprocessors.
An Agriprocessors press release Sept. 18, 2008, refers to Bernard Feldman, 63, as the "new chief operating officer," but doesn't mention he's replacing Rubashkin. Some Iowa and out-of-state newspapers and Jewish newspapers and newsletters reported Feldman was replacing Rubashkin.
In other motions filed Friday, Rubashkin asks the court to dismiss the case, claiming the grand jury indictment against him was biased. A brief to support the claim was filed but it's been sealed.
The other motion asks the court to sever counts 1 through 11 of the 99-count indictment because there are multiple defendants who aren't charged with the same crimes and the charges are unrelated.
This, my friends, is what is called stalling. Look for much more like it as September's trial approaches.
Rubashkin can afford to do this because he has a large legal defense fund run by Chabad and filled with tax exempt dollars that pays his legal fees. So extremely large legal bills are like large medical bills are to someone with great health insurance. The insurance company pays the bills. Chabad pays the bills.
The end game is to hope Obama's US Attorney appointees are friendlier to Rubashkin than Bush appointees, and to keep Sholom M. Rubashkin out on bail as long as possible.
Why?
Because he will probably serve a long prison sentence, and this period of freedom may be all he has for the rest of his working life.