Jury selection has begun in the child labor trial of former kosher meatpacking executive Sholom Rubashkin.
Rubashkin, who is awaiting sentencing in his conviction on 86 federal financial fraud charges in connection with the Agriprocessors kosher meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa, is set to go on trial in Waterloo, Iowa, on charges that minors worked excessive hours and were exposed to poisonous chemicals and dangerous machinery at the plant.
Because the county jail across the street from the courthouse could not provide Rubashkin with kosher food, he is being driven daily from the jail in Cedar Rapids, where he has been held since his sentencing hearing.
The court approved spending $35,000 in state money to fly in eight underage plant workers from Guatemala to testify against Rubashkin, the Des Moines Register reported.
The Agriprocessors plant in Postville was the site of a federal immigration raid in May 2008. — jta