Rubashkin Bail Request Taken to US Supreme Court

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rubashkin4Concerns Grow in Jewish Community as Rubashkin Faces Over 20 Years in Prison

[Donate link below.] Renowned lawyer Nathan Lewin, who is representing the former CEO of the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, Sholom Rubashkin, has taken the case for granting bail to Mr. Rubashkin to the highest court in the land.

On March 11, Mr. Lewin petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the decision of the lower courts denying Mr. Rubashkin bail pending his forthcoming sentencing. He has now taken the additional step of making a direct application to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who presides over the Iowa judicial district in which Mr. Rubashkin’s case is being heard, to grant Mr. Rubashkin his immediate release on bail pending his sentencing and appeal.

 Mr. Lewin asserts that federal prosecutors were overzealous in Mr. Rubashkin’s prosecution from the start, submitting him to considerably more severe restrictions and potential punishment than other employers targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for hiring even larger numbers of illegal workers than were discovered at Agriprocessors. He further points out that the judge presiding over Mr. Rubashkin’s case improperly allowed prejudicial evidence of alleged immigration infractions, despite the fact that the only charges against Mr. Rubaskin related to alleged bank fraud.

 As reports of these and other irregularities in the case have filtered down to the grassroots community, several Jewish organizations have joined in questioning the basis for prosecutors’ assertion that Rubashkin is a flight risk who must remain imprisoned before sentencing. They are also critical of the federal government for relentlessly targeting Rubashkin over the last two years, seemingly to retroactively justify the massive 2008 raid on the Agriprocessors plant – which included Black Hawk military helicopters and more than 600 federal agents – that economically destroyed the town of Postville and left the company bankrupt.

 Mr. Rubashkin’s bank fraud convictions were for inflating invoices to expand a line of credit he used to operate his business, even though timely payments were made on the loan and the bank appeared uninterested in the accuracy of the invoices.

Prosecutors were allowed to include inflammatory evidence regarding the employment of illegal workers at the bank fraud trial, even though the judge had previously ruled such evidence would prejudice the jury and had severed the immigration and bank fraud cases for that very reason. The charges regarding harboring illegal immigrants were eventually dropped.

Perhaps most dismaying, prosecutors fragmented two basic charges into 163 counts in seven superseding indictments. And the prosecutors have shown unusual harshness in resisting Mr. Rubashkin’s request – even with the posting of a large bond and his hiring of a round-the-clock private guard – to spend the first days of Passover and celebrate the seders with his family.

 “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 reached a loud crescendo in recent weeks, as the full horror of how he is being singled out for harsh treatment has become strikingly clear.”

Rabbis Lerner and Zwiebel, along with representatives of other Jewish groups, are exploring ways of expressing their deep concern to the federal prosecutors in Iowa as well as the U.S. Justice Department at the national level.

Despite the fact that the jury found in a special interrogatory that Rubashkin did not profit personally from false invoices presented to the lending bank, prosecutors have indicated that they view an appropriate prison sentence as being in the 21 to 27 year range. He is the father of 10 children, including an autistic teenage boy who depends heavily on him.

Letters and other correspondence for Reb Shalom Mordechai may be sent to:

Linn County Correctional Center

Inmate Shalom Rubashkin

P.O. Box 608

Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-0608

Make sure to write a return address or the mail will not be delivered to him.

Please continue to daven for Reb Shalom Mordechai ben Rivkah.

Significant funds must still be raised for the legal defense. Anyone who can help out and lend support should take a moment to send a donation to the Pidyon Shvuyim Fund. The help of Yidden across the globe is severely needed.

You can easily donate by clicking on the following link:

   

Alternatively, you can mail contributions to:

Pidyon Shvuyim Fund

53 Olympia Lane

Monsey NY 10952

{Dovid Bernstein-Matzav.com Newscenter}


8 COMMENTS

  1. i think when the problem started
    nobody was there
    why did we not help him then
    now when it is to late all of suden all organization are here
    we should lern lesson to help somebody before it gets in to deep problems
    not when it is to late
    rachmonoh litzlon

  2. they should be deeply dismayed now. if rabbi lerner and rabbi zwiebel really care they shouldnt epxress it but ACT and get something done for this poor yid

  3. shouldn’t we write to political representatives and spell it out:
    Rubashkin is sigled out because he is Jewish.
    What about his constitutional rights to fair treatment ??
    Today its Rubashkin, tomorrow it could be anyone.

  4. Get Sholom Rubashkin Home for Pesach

    Passing this along because as we sit with our families during Pesach, it is important that Sholom Rubashkin be able to do the same.

    Please consider signing this petition, and passing on to your contacts.

    Here is the link
    http://www.gopetition.com/online/34923.html

    The Petition:
    “We the undersigned call for Mr. Sholom M. Rubashkin to be released to spend the upcoming Passover Holiday with his dependent children, and until his sentencing. We urge you to consider that Mr. Rubashkin is not a flight risk as he would never abandon his children, nor his elderly parents. Guaranties such as ankle brace, house detention, guards, and collateral have been offered. This excessive incarceration before his sentencing has horrified and shocked us.
    We furthermore urge leniency in his case. The embellished and distorted charges against Mr. Rubashkin have been proliferated through a smear campaign orchestrated by PETA, the UFCW, anti-Semitic groups and sensationalist media. The net effect of the smear campaign has been predictable, culminating in the almost universal vilification of an innocent man and a conviction in the courtroom of public opinion long before he had his day in court. If anyone is deserving of sympathy, support and maximum leniency, it is Sholom Rubashkin, because is truth he is an exemplar of ethical behavior and upstanding character traits.”

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