The trial, currently scheduled for Oct. 10, involves immigration- and fraud-related charges against Sholom Rubashkin, son of company founder A. Aaron Rubashkin, and three additional supervisors — Brent Bebee, Hosam Amara and Zeev Levi.

The charges stem from a massive immigration raid and follow-up investigation at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville. A total of 389 workers, most from either Guatemala or Mexico, were detained and charged by federal authorities with immigration-related offenses.

Reade had twice denied a change of venue request, but had left open the opportunity for defense attorneys to refile the request in the weeks before trial was scheduled to begin. The thought was that public sentiment that might have been impacted by media reports could be better measured at a time closer to the trial date.

In order to determine public sentiment, more than 500 random eastern Iowans were surveyed. Upon reading, Reade determined the survey responses “demonstrate that the prodigious amount of negative pretrial publicity has caused the vast majority of potential jurors to develop and maintain a pervasive, strong bias against Defendants Rubashkin and Agriprocessors.”

“Based on the court’s analysis of the juror questionnaires, this bias would directly impact the ability of nearly all of the potential jurors to set aside their biases and decide the case based only on the evidence presented at trial,” Reade wrote in the order. “As a result, the court finds that the pretrial publicity in the community is so extensive and inflammatory that it raises a presumption that an impartial jury could not be seated in the Northern District of Iowa in October of 2009.”

Reade also states that she chose the Southern District of South Dakota (Sioux Falls) because “there has been only minimal publicity surrounding Agriprocessors and the instant action in that district” and also because the area is roughly the same size as the Cedar Rapids region. Reade closed her order with a reminder to counsel to refrain from speaking with the press, particularly publications in or around Sioux Falls.

The South Dakota location is convenient to the Northern District of Iowa given its proximity to court facilities in Sioux City, just 90 miles from Sioux Falls. It remains unclear, however, how convenient it will be for individuals in and around Postville who had planned to attend the trial.

It is also worth noting that although Rubashkin and his counsel argued for the change of venue, both the prosecution and counsel for Bebee resisted the change. Levi and Amara remain at large and took no part in the proceedings.

Rubashkin and several other members of plant management, including his father who resides in Brooklyn, N.Y., also face several thousand state charges of alleged child-labor law violations.

In the interim, Reade will decide if the jury pool is too tainted to hold proceedings in Cedar Rapids and if the trial should be moved to a neighboring state.  Although Cedar Rapids is roughly 100 miles from Postville by car, defense attorneys for former day-to-day executive Sholom Rubashkin have argued that any location in Iowa is unacceptable due to media reports regarding the raid and subsequent arrests, an editorial written by Gov. Chet Culver and an additional case that alleges child-labor law offenses that has been brought by the state.

Rubashkin and three additional former supervisors — Brent Beebe, Hosam Amara and Zeev Levi — have all entered not guilty pleas in connection with the myriad of federal immigration-related and fraud charges that have been brought against them by federal authorities. Amara and Levi, who are believed to have fled to Israel, have not yet been taken into custody.

In addition to the change of venue, Rubashkin has also petitioned the court to dismiss all 163 federal counts against him due to “abuses of the grand jury process.”

Reade said she anticipates making a ruling “within days.”

Agriprocessors, the meatpacking plant owned and operated by the Rubashkin family that was the site of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement action in May 2008 in which 389 workers were detained, has been removed from indictment by federal prosecutors. Following a bankruptcy sale, the plant is now under new ownership.

Lewi also said that there are multiple bidders for the company, according to the AP report.

Since the company filed for Chapter 11 protection, fears and concerns have been expressed by several in the extended Postville community that the current owners might attempt to retain at least partial ownership in the facility by having a friendly company give the winning bid at today’s auction. The Rubashkin family, founders and former owner-operators of the kosher meatpacking facility, have remained silent about their intent toward the plant, but have made it clear of their intent to continue in the community they’ve built in Postville.

If another company were to purchase the meatpacking plant at today’s auction, there would be no conflict with maintaining members of the Rubashkin family as managers or retaining other supervisors who have served the plant. The Rubashkin family did revolutionize mass production glatt kosher processing. So, who better to run the plant than those who founded not only the location but the process?

Even Sarachek, who restarted poultry production at the plant during his tenure as bankruptcy trustee, has continued to seek the knowledge and skills of those who were already employed by the plant. Heshy Rubashkin, son of founder A. Aaron Rubashkin, and plant employees named in court documents have been seen on plant property while the bankruptcy worked its way through the courts.

Critics of the Rubashkins maintaining any leadership role in the facility are concerned that such attachments will prevent the plant from truly moving forward. They believe that the Rubashkins’ failed hiring practices will resume and while Postville may find immediate relief, the community will ultimately revisit the same problems it is experiencing now.

Federal cases against plant workers as well as against the plant itself will also have an impact. For instance, it remains to be seen how well another kosher meatpacker can do financially if it is stripped of the Rubashkin brands, which have become the subject of a federal forfeiture case.

Creditors, on the other hand, will likely be happy for any buyer to step forward. The plant has numerous creditors, who do not wish to be holding such large, empty bags in the current economic climate.

Regardless of whether individuals are in favor of the Rubashkins maintaining interest in the plant or would rather the family pursue other activities, the decision to close the auction to the press is not in the best interest of the public. Just as the immigration raid, the unpaid bills, the charges of child labor and the overall aftermath has not been limited to just the meatpacking plant, the public has an unquestionable interest in the outcome of the auction.

The auction is set to begin today at 1:30 p.m.

Update (1:30 PM): The sale is open to the press after all.  Iowa Independent’s Lynda Waddington is there, and she will have coverage when the event concludes.

Three out of the city’s five city council members voted Monday night to accept the resignation of current Mayor Bob Penrod. Penrod, who had made an emotional and seemingly off-the-cuff verbal resignation last week during a discussion about a mobile phone device, had quietly expressed that he would be willing to continue to serve as mayor if those on the council refused his resignation.

On Monday morning, hours before the council met, it looked as if Penrod would continue as mayor. At least one of those who ultimately voted against retaining Penrod Monday night had expressed a desire to keep the man on until the end of his term.

When the vote was taken, members Jeff Reinhardt, Virginia Medberry and Milo Heins accepted Penrod’s resignation. Larry Moore and Ross Malcom, who is serving as interim mayor, voted against. There were no public comments made about why certain members had a change of heart.

City officials will publish a notice in the local newspaper that candidates are being sought for the post. Council plans to appoint a person to serve instead of paying roughly $3,500 for the cost of a special election.

Postville community radio station KPVL 89.1 FM, which has been the only local information source for residents in the wake of the May 2008 immigration raid, has been in the process of a massive fund drive for the past few days. Sources close to the station have indicated that the station is in make-or-break mode. Without unprecedented listener support, the station is likely to close in the near future.

The situation, which was recently detailed by reporter Nathaniel Popper for the Columbia Journalism Review, pits the board of the community radio station against Jeff Abbas, KPVL’s station manager.

The turning point for Abbas came the week after the raid, when he read the descriptions of child labor, abusive supervisors, and dishonest management in the government’s affidavit on the slaughterhouse. Abbas was outraged. When I interviewed him months later, he became animated as he recalled his awakening. “Every time I spent more than a few minutes with that affidavit, I became more incensed,” he said. “I couldn’t help but become outspoken.”

… It was Abbas’s decision to air an interview in late May, with a woman from Texas who was angry about the way the Rubashkins[, owners of the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant,] had treated her, that cause the first blow-back from Chaim Abrahams, then the president of KPVL’s board and also an executive at Agriprocessors.

Popper’s report documents how, as the influence of Abbas and KPVL increased, revenues declined. Abbas has worked most of the past few years without a regular paycheck, a situation that has resulted in him accepting government assistance in order to survive.

The Agriprocessors plant, Postville’s largest employer and site of last year’s raid, also continues to struggle. Limited poultry production has continued under Joseph Sarachek, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy trustee, and the plant sale is scheduled for March 23.

The blog Postville Voices began shortly after the May 12 immigration raid at Agriprocessors. Originally, the site was named after the meatpacking plant, but switched its name June 1, citing a request by Agriprocessors management. In the past it has taken journalists to task on what the blog referred to as faulty reporting. On June 3 an Iowa Independent report on allegations of sexual harrassment at the plant was questioned by the blog writers.

Again, allegations reported as fact. Semantics aside, if you read that report you will find that although claims have been made of propositioning by individual supervisors, none of the women claim to have filed a complaint with the company, making one wonder how the company was to have prevented the harassment. But this is not journalism, it is media entertainment, so let’s not be too picky.

The site also hosted a series of videos from plant employees speaking about their postive work experiences. Rubashkin has admitted to shooting the videos inside the plant, but says they were forwarded after editing to the workers and the workers alone decided if they were fair characterizations of their opinions before submitting them to the blog.

Duara, who characterized the effort as astroturfing, reported that Rubashkin and a group of friends — friends that have since been named on the blog — began the site about two weeks after the immigration raid. Within six weeks postings on the blog had dwindled. There was only one posting for the entire month of July and none during the month of August.

“This blog has nothing to do with Agriprocessors, and any attempt to link it to Agriprocessors in order to discredit and smear them is ridiculous,” Rubashkin wrote in a response to the Duara report. “It is true that I am the son of Sholom Rubashkin, but I am also an independent individual and my choices are my own.”

Rubashkin said that he was urged by company officials to not be involved with the site, but did so anyway. He further presses that “no deception was perpetrated by the editors.” The reason his name was not made public in relation to the blog, Rubashkin said, was because he feared further “antagonizing the plant management” and was not an attempt to “fool anyone.”

A few weeks after Postville Voices went dark, a new blog dubbed Agri Facts began. Rubashkin denies any involvement in creating this new effort but says that he will “be assisting them in any way I that I can.” He added that if “[Duara] or anyone else has a problem with people defending themselves or others against misinformation and smear campaigns, they will just have to live with it.”

While the new blog has refrained from naming journalists or media outlets to criticize coverage, it does have two posts that correlate directly to reports on housing and rental rates in Postville. Both posts appeared on the blog shortly after two reports on Iowa Independent and various other media reports on the same topic. Getzel Rubashkin, concerned that Iowa Independent misrepresented him as a spokesman for the company and that the housing situation in Postville was not being factually represented, contacted Iowa Independent to discuss the reports.

The United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, which has long yearned to organize workers at the Postville meatpacking plant, hosts its own site, Eye on Agriprocessors. The relationship between the web site and the union is fully disclosed in the page header.

Bernard S. Feldman, 63 and a New York attorney, has accepted the position at the beleigered Agriprocessors, according to a press release from the Lubicom consulting company. In the prepared statement Aaron Rubashkin, owner of the company is credited with saying that Feldman’s “first task will be to restore production at the plant to the level of pre-May 12, the date of the immigration raid.”

Feldman said that he looks “forward to putting the company back on its feet and guiding it in the appropriate direction.” He emphasized that he was “an attorney who helped many companies regain their former position in an industry,” but cited no specific examples.

“The Company has made significant strides since May 12^th in putting together a highly professional team with a great deal of integrity,” said Feldman in a prepared statement. “I look forward to working with these people, including Jim Martin, a former U.S. Attorney in Missouri, who serves as the compliance officer for our company. I will also work closely with the professional manpower firms, and OSHA specialists amongst others.”

Feldman also noted that “Agriprocessors is more than a company.”

“It is an institution and an absolute necessity in the Orthodox Jewish community and in the many other communities who wish to eat kosher foods.”

Feldman, obviously aware of the threat by the Orthodox Union to remove kosher certification at the company unless new management was hired, made a point of saying that he looks forward to close cooperation with the rabbis and agencies that certify the kosher status of Rubashkin products.

“Kashrus was and is a primary focus of the company and is the reason why the company has been such a major success since its founding,” Feldman said. “We will also continue to focus on our exceptional quality and fair pricing, as the hallmarks of our future success.”

Feldman also gave a shout out to those who have been following the stories of alleged worker and animal mistreatment at the plant, saying that his intention is to work “closely with governmental agencies that are concerned with the safety of our products and the treatment of workers and animals.”

Feldman replaces Sholom M. Rubashkin, a son of company founder Aaron Rubashkin. Sholom was ousted from the position shortly after the May 12 immigration raid, although he has been a fixture in and around the plant since that time. It is unclear if Sholom and other family members will continue to play a role in the day-to-day administration of the plant or if this move signals movement to a non-family management team.

The announcement comes in the wake of two Agriprocessors human resources workers being indicted on immigration-related charges and 9,311 charges of possible child labor law violations by the state. The company and five employees — including former CEO Sholom M. Rubashkin and founder Abraham Aaron Rubashkin — were named in the state child labor law charges. All parties have provided written notice to the court of their intent to fight the allegations.

Update:

The JTA is reporting that Feldman will not be moving to Postville for day-to-day management of the plant, but will spend “a major part” of his time there. In addition, Rabbi Menachem Genack, the head of supervision at the Orthodox Union, said he was pleased with the decision to hire Feldman, but that the organization will continue to monitor the situation.

“Baloney!” he exclaimed.

He went on to tell The Jewish Star that the charges were “crazy.”

“For what?” he asked. “What did I do?”

… we weren’t expecting a tearful telephone confession, but his absolute certainty that there’s no merit at all to any of this would seem to more than justify what’s been said and done so far, and what’s apparently about to happen next.

The shame of it is, it didn’t have to come to this.

“These are not bad people but they’re just so sloppy,” said Rabbi [Menachem] Genack [of the Orthodox Union]. “And because they messed up so many times, they’re just piling on.” …

The Orthodox Union Kosher Supervision trademark (Source: Wikipedia)

“Within the coming days, or let’s say a week or two, we will suspend our supervision unless there’s new management in place,” Rabbi Menachem Genack, the head of kosher supervision for the Orthodox Union, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency this afternoon.

Shortly after the May 12 immigration raid at the plant, the company announced that Sholom M. Rubashkin, son of owner Aaron Rubashkin, was being ousted from his position as chief executive officer and president. The ouster was prompted, at least in part, by threats from the Orthodox Union. Although the search for a replacement had been narrowed, no one has yet been hired to replace him.

Ganack, in an interview with Shmarya Rosenberg of FailedMessiah.com, said this afternoon that the Rubashkin family would need to hire a “new indepedent CEO,” but conceded that members of the Rubashkin family could remain on the company’s board.

“[The family] can’t be involved in running the plant — actually hands-on running of the plant,” Ganack said.

It is unclear if the decision by the Orthodox Union would be limited to only the Postville facility or would also encompass operations at Local Pride, an Agriprocessors plant located in Gordon, Neb.

Sholom and Aaron Rubashkin, along with three human resources workers, were named today in the attorney general’s charges.

On April 16, kosher certifier K’Hal Adath Jeshurun (KAJ) terminated its supervision of all Agriprocessors’ operations. The decision was made, according to a letter from the KAJ, “after consideration of the appeals made” by the Rubashkin family.

~UPDATE~

Vos Iz Neias? is reporting that Rabbi Menachem Weissmandl will continue to provide the Rubashkin family and Agriprocessors his certification, regardless of the OU’s decision.

“My job and expertise is strictly kosher supervision. As long as the strict guidelines of Kosher Shichitah is followed in this plant, my Hecsher will stay on.”

Rabbi Weissmandl previously told Iowa Independent that he is “the supervising rabbi for all glatt kosher meat and strictly kosher poultry at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville.”

Those named in the court documents are:

• Abraham Aaron Rubashkin — principal owner and president of Agriprocessors, Inc.
• Sholom M. Rubashkin — Son of Aaron, manager of the slaughtering and meat packing plant at Postville and a company officer.
• Elizabeth Billmeyer — human resources manager of Agriprocessors, Inc. and a resident of Postville.
• Laura Althouse — management employee in the human resources department at Agriprocessors in Postville.
• Karina Freund — management employee in the human resources department at Agriprocessors in Postville.

A total of 9,311 child labor violations, involving 32 minors under the age of 18, are included in the court documents. Seven of the 32 minors were under the age of 16. The alleged violations range from September 2007 to May 12 of this year — the date of the massive federal immigration raid on the plant. All violations are simple misdemeanors, each punishable by up to 30 days in jail and/or a fine of $65 to $625.

An initial appearance has been scheduled before Iowa District Court Judge John Bauercamper for Sept. 17 in Allamakee County.

From the documents filed with the court:

“During the period of Sept. 9, 2007, through May 12, 2008, the persons as listed as employee-victims in the attached Complaint were employed and permitted to work at Agriprocessors’ slaughtering and meat packing establishment. All were under eighteen years of age on each of the dates listed. Throughout their employment these children were exposed to dangerous and/or poisonous chemicals, including, but not limited to, dry ice and chlorine solutions. Several of these employee-victims were also under sixteen years of age during the dates for which they are identified as such in the Complaint. Throughout their employment, these children, while under sixteen years of age, were employed in the operation of or tending of power-driven machinery, including, but not limited to, conveyor belts, meat grinders, circular saws, power washers, and power shears.”

The court documents also enumerate more than 1,500 violations relating to hours worked, including employee-victims under 16 who worked more than eight hours on specified days, and more than 40 hours in specified weeks. According to the affadavit, records indicate that there were instances of children under the age of 16 working before 7 a.m. and after 7 p.m. and, while school was in session, working more than four hours in a day and more than 28 hours in a week.

The Iowa Attorney General found that “all of the named individual defendants possessed shared knowledge that Agriprocessors employed undocumented aliens” and “that many of those workers were minors.”

Chaim Abrahams, plant manager at Agriprocessors, vehemently refutes the charges.

The breakdown of the charges are as follows:

• 3,857 violations of Iowa Code, section 92.8(9) — (“No person under 18 years of age shall be employed or permitted to work with or without compensation at any of the following occupations or business establishments: … Occupations in or about slaughtering and meat packing establishments and rendering plants.”
• 3,857 violations of Iowa Code, section 92.8(19) — “No person under 18 years of age shall be employed or permitted to work with or without compensation at any of the following occupations or business establishments: … Occupations involving exposure to lead fumes or its compounds, or to dangerous or poisonous dyes or chemicals.”
• 790 violations of Iowa Code, section 92.6(6) — “Persons 14 and 15 years of age may not be employed in: … Operation or tending of hoisting apparatus or of any power-driven machinery, other than office machines and machines in retail, food service, and gasoline service establishments which are specified in section 92.”
• 677 violations of Iowa Code, section 92.7 — “A person under 16 years of age shall not be employed with or without compensation, except as provided in sections 92.2 and 92.3, before the hour of 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m., except during the period from June 1 through Labor Day when the hours may be extended to nine p.m.  If such person is employed for a period of five hours or more each day, an intermission of not less than 30 minutes shall be given.  Such a person shall not be employed for more than eight hours in one day, exclusive of intermission, and shall not be employed for more than 40 hours in one week.  The hours of work of persons under 16 years of age employed outside school hours shall not exceed four in one day or 28 in one week while school is in session.”

Shortly after the plant lost roughly half of its workforce in the raid, management appealed to workers at their Gordon, Neb. facility to come into Iowa. They came… and quickly left.

Next the plant contracted with the Waterloo-based staffing firm Labor Ready for workers. The staffing firm pulled the workers from the plant 10 days later.

Management outsourced to another staffing firm. That firm, in turn, appealed to other companies for help recruiting workers into the Postville plant. The result was an influx of homeless people from the state of Texas. The southern workers said they came to Postville because of promises made in relation to employment there. When they left Postville, they claimed those same promises were broken.

Yesterday, the Associated Press reported on the recent wave of Somali immigrants that have come to work at Agriprocessors. At nearly the same time as the AP was giving the public a glimpse of the new workers’ hopes and dreams for success in Postville, local journalist Tony Leys wrote an article for the Des Moines Register that, although new, sounds like it could be the next verse, same as the first.

Abdikarim Nur, 19, said he recently quit after working two weeks at Agriprocessors. He said he received no training, and that most of his pay was withheld.

Nur said the recruiting company arranged living quarters, with many men packed into small apartments. The living conditions apparently were the same as those endured by the illegal immigrants who were arrested in May, he said. “They treat us like they used to treat the old people, and that’s not right,” he said.

Perhaps it will take another song to drown out the first.