Court: Rubashkin innocent, didn’t hire minors as charged

Sholom Rubashkin was acquitted last week of allowing minors to work at the Agriprocessors meat packing plant in Iowa.

But the former slaughterhouse manager still faces sentencing June 22 in federal court, where he was convicted earlier of financial fraud. Prosecutors have asked for a 25-year term while Rubashkin’s attorney has asked for six years.

Rubashkin was charged in both cases following a May 2008 immigration raid at the slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, where 389 workers, including children, were arrested on immigration charges.

Prosecutors had claimed Rubashkin, whose father owned the slaughterhouse, knowingly employed underage workers, exposed them to dangerous chemicals, allowed them to operate power machinery and allowed them to work more hours per day and per week than is legal.

The defense maintained the plant’s hiring process was flawed and dysfunctional but Rubashkin didn’t knowingly hire minors.

Twenty-six former Agriprocessors employees from Guatemala and Mexico testified they had worked at the plant as teens in 2007 and 2008 and that they were hired after providing false documents showing they were older. — ap