DES MOINES, IA — A former top executive at Agriprocessors Inc. is willing to hire armed, 24-hour security guards or install cameras around his house if a federal magistrate agrees to release him from jail, his new lawyer said Friday.
The proposal would allow Sholom Rubashkin to return to his home in Postville, but with additional safeguards to ensure that the 49-year-old cannot flee the country, according to records filed in U.S. District Court.
Rubashkin Offers Way to Ensure He Won’t Flee
DES MOINES, IA — A former top executive at Agriprocessors Inc. is willing to hire armed, 24-hour security guards or install cameras around his house if a federal magistrate agrees to release him from jail, his new lawyer said Friday.
The proposal would allow Sholom Rubashkin to return to his home in Postville, but with additional safeguards to ensure that the 49-year-old cannot flee the country, according to records filed in U.S. District Court.
Rubashkin would hire Global Security Services at his own expense to monitor him, and would sign any extradition waiver offered by prosecutors, according to court records. Guards from the Davenport security firm would not let him leave his house unattended, and would be given the authority to arrest him at gunpoint if needed.
Lawyers for the former slaughterhouse manager have argued that Rubashkin is a devoted family man and Orthodox rabbi who would not abandon his 10 children or his supporters by skipping the country. Prosecutors argued successfully last month that Rubashkin might flee to Israel if he is released on bond.
“We don’t think he’s a flight risk,” said Guy Cook, a Des Moines lawyer who joined Rubashkin’s defense team Friday. “He’s not a coward. He wants to tell his side of the story. But to the extent that the judge has determined him to be a flight risk, we wanted to offer these new conditions.”
Cook said hiring the security firm is “an expensive ordeal,” but would not disclose the exact cost. Rubashkin’s friends in the Jewish community have agreed to pay for the extra security, Cook said.
Rubashkin has sat in the Dubuque County Jail since his arrest Nov. 14 on a federal bank fraud charge. He also faces federal charges of conspiring to hire undocumented workers, and more than 9,000 violations of state child labor laws. Rubashkin has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
Agriprocessors was the site of one of the nation’s largest single-site immigration raids in May, when federal agents detained nearly 400 illegal immigrant workers. Postville and the kosher meat plant have since spiraled into financial turmoil, with the slaughterhouse filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and suspending its production. Tensions have boiled in the northeast Iowa town as longtime residents and plant workers watch their economy crumble.
In a letter to U.S. Magistrate Jon Scoles, the head of Global Security Services offered to guard Rubashkin with armed officers or through a sophisticated camera system monitored from Davenport.
“We would ensure that Mr. Rubashkin is unable to leave the court’s jurisdiction,” wrote Brad Utter, the company’s president. “We understand that the government has claimed that Mr. Rubashkin also proposes a risk of evidence tampering. Our services would prevent any such misconduct as well.”
Rubashkin’s lawyers also disputed prosecutor claims that he was a flight risk. Scoles decided to keep Rubashkin in jail after authorities discovered a travel bag in his bedroom closet with children’s passports and thousands of dollars in cash.
The court filing asking Scoles to reconsider his ruling also accused prosecutors of “disparaging the efficacy” of the extradition treaty with Israel,” by suggesting that Israel would not return Rubashkin to the United States if he fled.
Cook said Rubashkin has spent much of his jail time meditating and tending to his faith. His family has visited several times, Cook said, but Rubashkin was upset by the separation from his wife and his children, including a 15-year-old autistic son.
Bob Teig, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Cedar Rapids, said he had not seen the court filing
anynomous
Hashem should help. Meanwhile, we can all give some help by raising some money to pay for all these expensive lawyers, and now bodyguards… Pidyon Shivuyim is a huge mitzvah. Please think about this.
Shavua Tov
A better week
People relax there is probably a multi stage plan here..
helo the rubashkins
please sign the war on kosher
go to WARONKOSHER.COM
Just a fellow Jew
Please help with the pidyon shvuyim fund!
Sigh
let’s set up a fund!!! way to go. let’s propose an idea and publish it online. We can therefore work together in an organized fashion.
S.
You do the crime, you do the time. Plain and simple – no strings pulled for anyone, yid or not. This is getting crazy.
MPinson
I hope it works out!
Please sign http://www.WARonKosher.com
OVER DUE
Moshiach Moshiach Moshiach
NOW! NOW! NOW!!
Enough is enough
I certainly agree that we ALL need to get together and do everything in our power to help. Unity can do a lot in the face of extreme circumstances.
yossi
Pidyon Shivuyim?? he is not the only yid in jail. Many others need help that dont have neerly as much prestige and resources.
Been There
It is only the self righteous that ever want a living person without access and control of the basic essentials of lifes daily routines i.e. toilet,bathing,eating,prayers,lights,ventilation,clothing
people lose freedoms because they violated laws
Is recidivism a fear
Will Sholom Rubashkin violate the laws of Postville Iowa and The United States of America ?
Places have to protect their citizens and the economies that allow them to be successful
Peace/Sholom is reached through mediation/dontaions/contributions/acceptance
The chinese accepted communism as opium
what is the jurisdictions opium ?
I can continue I want some hot soup
CIAO
sarcastic
to yossi !! wow that makes a lot of sence so its not pidyon shvuyim cuz theres others in jail..wow very smart one there… there’s so many pple that need tzedakah so dont give anyone.. hmm..great logic…
shocked
Attention “s”:
tell me –
have you ever shopped in crown heights using cash instead of credit to avoid paying tax?
have you ever applied for food stamps, medicaid or section 8 apartments?
have you ever worked for shluchim in a way where you were not paid on the books?
do you always file EVERYTHING you earn?
i can hardly imagine that you have never done your own bit of “cheating”.
i am so shocked that you can look at a yid who is sitting in jail while his family suffers and shrug and say that he deserves what is happening.
regardless of whether you feel he was right or wrong, the RIGHT thing to do is support him in his time of suffering. hashem should help that you should never find yourself in a situation like his and have to come across people who wouldn’t want to help you.
Levi Wilschanski
I hope to g-d that “S.” and “yossi” dont marry each other and bring to the world a generation of children who are insensitive and cold to the plight of a fellow jew.
I also hope and pray that they improve their ways (chataim veloh choitim) and never g-d forbid have to suffer the experience that rabbi rubashkin and his family are now being subjected too…..
an apology for your rude and crude remarks is in order…
good luck & good riddance to bad rubbish.
“over due” – YOUR SOO RIGHT! MOSHIACH NOW!
to S.
“You do the crime, you do the time. Plain and simple.”
Has he already been tried and found guilty? How did we all miss the trial?
The purpose of holding him now is not punishment for crimes he may have committed. It is to keep him from running away to avoid trial. If there’s a way to ensure that he wont flee without locking him up, is that so terrible?
Miriam
He has not yet been convicted of anything and possibly never will be. He does have a defense. He also would not be able to run away so easily because anyone who helped him would be in trouble for aiding and abetting a fugitive, including his wife and non-minor children. If he really would have gone to Israel with his family, he would have easily been discovered and extradited to the US. While I do agree that Jews should run their businesses legally to avoid these kinds of problems, he has not been proven guilty by a jury or a beis din.
The media, including blogs such as this, has not been helpful. Too much media exposure to any criminal case, taints the case. Negative blogging, where the bloggers assume guilt when they post, are read by possible jurors as well as the prosecutors. They log on to sites such as this when following the case, the same way that frum Jews do. It is hard to select a jury when there is so much familiarity with a case.
While we Jews should do all that we can to encourage honesty in business, we should realize that being a frum Jew in jail is not the same as being a non-Jew in jail. Frum Jews are in a life-threatening situation, in jail. While it may be unlikely that readers of a blog such as this can realistically raise enough money for his defense or his bail, at least we can daven for him to be released and that the verdict should be not-guilty.
rivkah
to s. and yossi- this is serious pidyon shivuyim. this is not simply a case of you do the crime, you sit. isnt it clear to you that sholom rubashkin is being exsessively prosecuted? dont you get it? no need to go into further explanation right here.. if you dont get that, well then .. what does it bother you to put ourselves together and help a man who has helped thousands? cant “fargin”? that’s sad..
GM to s
hey S, you mean like the alter rebbe on yud tes kislev?
Yonatan
In reference to shocked:
I agree that we should not pass judgement and we should all daven and hope for a speedy release for Shalom Rubashkin.
Where I disagree is in the comparison of small acts of tax cheating to large acts of fraud and government deception. The reason that I disagree is that the average person is not risking jail by paying cash at the stores to avoid tax. The store itself, however, may be at risk. The person who does some side jobs off the books may be cheating but his chances of going to jail are small. The government usually concerns itself with fraud that costs the government lots of money. We should not judge Rubashkin because we are not in his place but frum Jews should realize that we do not fly under the radar of the government’s eyes. While hiring an occasional illegal cleaning women for an afternoon will probably not result in jail time, hiring an entire work force of illegals is going to be noticed by the government.
freedom for the Agri 3
In one respect, yossi is right. There ARE other Jews in jail. EVERYONE deserves our efforts to get them out, except in my opinion, rapists, axe murderers etc.
But we all know what he & S mean. Let Rubashkin sit. Shame on you both.
JJ
I admit that I am unfamiliar with the details in this case.
However it seems very unfair that he was denied bail.
Certainly they could have outfitted him with an ankle bracelet.
JJ
Roses
There is are Federal Prosecutors and a judge in Postville, Iowa.
L’Havdil, the Judge of Judegs is Everywhere.
We do not qualify for either position.
We are obligated to do one thing, daven and help a fellow Yid, who devotes much of his own to Klal Yisroel.
To those who look for punishment, chas v’shalom, why are you so eager to see Sholom Rubashkin in jail, r”l?
When I say this, I am not being facetious. You need to do a cheshbon hanefesh AND see a therapist to understand where your hatred and anger come from. Your reactions do not come out of love of justice, but from somewere dark and sinister.
Get help spiritually and emotionally.
Miryam Swerdlov
i just know that when u came to the rubashkins for help, any kind of help, they didn’t ask all these questions. they helped. it was a NA’ASE, we will do.
i thought that we r all rachmonin bney rachmonim, and i am insulted and hurt as a jew that people answer like some of the negative remarks that i read here.
kinderlach, whats the matter with us? Hashem and the Rebbe are watching what our re-actions are. I am sure that they are both crying.
PLEASE apologize. PLEASE STOP judging.
Thank you.
Miryam Swerdlov
HA
Miriam Swerdlov,
you said it right in the dot.
Except that you said it too nicely.
These are our brothers. They didn’t kill anyone,
or hurt anyone.they might have done something wrong, but it is not our place to wish bad on our own.
Some people are such mourons!
now is the time to spread the love!
ch resident
I was shocket at the words of “S” and Yossie. I am assuming that you have not been frum for very long or even if you are frum now. Or even if you come from Jewish parents., because no frum yid would think like that. How about you guys changing places with him? The person that wrote I hope you two don’t marry is on target. Your kids would be selfish, hateful, mean etc. etc. and of course not frum. and most likely not Jewish.
You are most probably full of anger and hate toward humanity and most likely a self hating Jew. You are most definitely jealous of the yichusdike family which you obviously don’t come from and wish you did.
I am also schocked that whoever monitors the comments allowed such Shtusim to pass through. It is not freedom of speech, it is ignorance and hate and of course jealousy because of the yichisdike family the Rubashinks are and they come from nothing.
teenager
to crown heights resident what one person does is on story but for YOUR comment to get on this wesite is beyond my logic. it seems that you are a nevia you who everyone is are you “g-d” to decice who people are, with the way things are now its because of people with one side brains one ear and abig mouth that dont know what their talking about and you are talking about freeing a yid, one of ours, im shockeddddd!!!!!!! you want moshiach do you if you really, badly wanted moshiach there wouldnt be such assumptions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
may G-d send you a speedy recovery!!
moshiach now
pained
to crown heights resident
. I assume you mean that there are some simonim of a Jew. One of them is rachmonim. So I agree with you. These are people who have at least partial goyishe blood in them. Just keep away from my family and don’t taint Lubavitch.
he is right, not everyone’s stupid comments and shtudadike ideas need to be printed.
Malka
FREERUBASHKIN.COM
I think thats a good name to start a site that collects money to help the Rubashkin family.
Lets all unite NOW and HELP like they helped the town of of Postville and all yidden that ever came to them. Shalom Mordechai never listed himself as a shliach in Postville but Shlichus he did, big time.
joey
there are alot of anti semites and mamzarim and mamzereses who were testefying against shalom rubashkin
i hope those mamzzarim bury themselves as soon as possible