A federal judge ruled today that trials for Agriprocessors, a former executive and a former supervisor do not need to be displaced from Iowa in order to assure justice wields an even hand.

Defense attorneys for Sholom Rubashkin, former day-to-day executive at Agriprocessors, had argued that pretrial publicity prevent their client from receiving a fair hearing in Iowa. The original call for a change of venue was joined by Brent Beebe, a former plant supervisor, and the company itself. In documents filed with the court, however, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade disagreed.

“The issue before the court is not, however, whether Defendants Rubashkin and Agriprocessors have received ‘bad press’ from persons in high places. As counsel for Defendant Rubashkin pointed out at the Hearing, the issue is simply whether Defendants Rubashkin and Agriprocessors will be able to receive a fair trial in the Northern District of Iowa,” Reade wrote.

“At present, the impact of Governor [Chet] Culver’s guest column, as well as the other media articles and items Defendant Rubashkin presented to the court at the Hearing, is unclear.”

Reade stated that “the bad press was at its zenith” in the days and months immediately following the May 2008 immigration raid at Agriprocessors and has declined since that time. Because the trial is not scheduled to begin until September 2009, Reade felt any media influence would continue to deteriorate.

“Defendants Rubashkin and Agriprocessors also appear to place too much emphasis on the role of the print media in society,” she wrote.

“It would be irresponsible for the court to categorically impute the vitriolic comments of those who post comments in online newspapers and on other websites to the jury pool. The court has no way to know whether most of the comments on the Internet are written by potential jurors as opposed to minors, non-residents or other persons unable to serve on the jury.”

Despite denying the motion, Reade did leave the door open for defense attorneys to renew the request “following voir dire,” or jury selection. The court, she wrote, has reserved four days for voir dire instead of the usual half-day. In addition, parties affiliated with the case pool their resources and concerns to craft a potential juror questionnaire. The court is also open to pulling potential jurors from a larger geographic area and requesting a larger pool of potential jurors.

Earlier this month Reade also rejected the attorneys’ request to drop all charges based on antisemitism.

The May 2008 immigration raid at Agriprocessors resulted in the detention of 389 plant workers, or nearly a third of the plant’s workforce. Most were quickly charges with criminal offenses, tried and sentenced. The plant, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is currently operating under the preview of a bankruptcy trustee and with only limited poultry production. Bankruptcy sale is scheduled for May 23.