Meat plant CEO's request OK'd
Judge issues ruling over witnesses Friday.
By AMY LORENTZEN
The Associated Press
March 21, 2009
DES MOINES -- A federal judge has ruled on a request by a former manager of an embattled kosher slaughterhouse on whether to compel witnesses to testify before trial over worries they could leave the country.
The ruling in the case of former Agriprocessors Inc. manager Sholom Rubashkin was issued Friday by Judge John S. Scoles.
In it, the judge notes that three of four witnesses Rubashkin wanted to testify before trial have been redesignated material witnesses after a request by a co-defendant. That means they will be available to testify at trial, which is scheduled for September.
Scoles granted Rubashkin's motion to perpetuate testimony for a fourth witness, Victor Hugo Sis-Tapaz, who wasn't redesignated a material witness and is subject to removal from the country.
"The ruling ensures the opportunity to preserve testimony supporting Mr. Rubashkin's defense," his attorney, Guy Cook, said in a statement Saturday to the Associated Press.
Nearly 100 counts were filed against Agriprocessors and its former managers following a federal immigration raid last May in Postville. Agents arrested 389 people, most from Mexico and Guatemala.
Indictments name Agriprocessors, Rubashkin and three co-defendants -- Brent Beebe, Hosam Amara and Zeev Levi -- who worked at the plant. Authorities have asked for help finding Amara and Levi.
The charges include conspiracy to harbor undocumented immigrants for profit, aiding and abetting the harboring of undocumented immigrants and conspiracy to commit document fraud.
About 30 people arrested in the raid later were named as potential material witnesses in Agriprocessors-related cases. Most of them will be deported, but first they must wait while the cases against the former managers and company wend their way through the federal courts.
Last month, a federal judge ruled that the witnesses, nearly all of whom were convicted of felonies following the raid, could be released from electronic surveillance despite a request from the U.S. attorney's office for continued monitoring.
In the motion to perpetuate testimony, Rubashkin's attorney argued the four witnesses should testify early because they could be deported or leave the country, and out of respect for their human rights so they weren't kept in a "legal limbo in the U.S." Agriprocessors joined in the motion.
In documents resisting the move, prosecutors argued that no date for removal from the country had been set for the four witnesses, and the government would have "ample advance notice" if a date were scheduled.
They noted, as Scoles did in his ruling, that a request by Rubashkin's co-defendant, Brent Beebe, had been made asking that three of the four witnesses be redesignated material witnesses.
Prosecutors also argued that during a hearing last month, Rubashkin agreed to the discontinuation of GPS monitoring, saying "he had no reason to believe the witnesses were going to flee."
"In a complete reversal of position, and in the hopes of obtaining authorization for pretrial depositions, defendant now claims a 'material witness order' is inadequate, and these witnesses will be 'unavailable' at trial," prosecutors said in documents where they asked that Rubashkin's efforts to get pretrial testimony be rejected.
No one could be reached by telephone on Saturday afternoon at the U.S. attorney's office in Cedar Rapids.
http://www.thehawkeye.com/Story/IA-KosherSlaughterho-032209
