2009: Rubashkin guilty - No ill will from Postville leaders

[Editor's note: This story was originally published in The Gazette's Friday, November 13, 2009 edition.]

Postville leaders reacted without vindictiveness last night to a guilty verdict against Sholom Rubashkin , the man widely blamed for plunging the town into a humanitarian and economic disaster.

"I personally don't think he was evil. He was just a bad manager who got in over his head," Mayor Leigh Rekow said after learning that a South Dakota jury had found the former top executive at kosher meatpacker Agriprocessors Inc. guilty on 86 of 91 charges in a financial fraud trial.

"I think it's a big disappointment," said former Postville City Council member Aaron Goldsmith, a leader in the Postville Jewish community and a friend of the Rubashkin family.

The prosecution of Rubashkin has exceeded the gravity of his crimes, Goldsmith said.

"He's already paid a high price with the loss of his good name and his livelihood. Now he will lose his freedom," he said.

The guilty verdicts will be a turning point in the lives of the hundreds of former Agriprocessors workers who suffered in the aftermath of the massive immigration raid in May 2008 that started Rubashkin 's demise, said the Rev. Paul Ouderkirk.

"There has been a need for justice. Many people have prayed for justice," said Ouderkirk, who has ministered to the mostly Hispanic displaced workers sheltered at St. Bridget Catholic Church in Postville.

The jury verdict in Sioux Falls, S.D., could mean a prison sentence of hundreds of years for Rubashkin , who is now 50. He still faces a second federal trial on 72 immigration charges.

Jurors returned the verdict on their second day of deliberations after a nearly monthlong trial. Rubashkin had faced 91 charges, including bank, mail and wire fraud and money laundering. He was found not guilty on five of 19 charges alleging he did not make timely payments to livestock dealers.

A sentencing date was not immediately set.

Defense attorney Guy Cook said he would appeal the verdict.

Prosecutors offered no immediate comment and referred all questions to U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Bob Teig, who did not return a call seeking comment last night.

Rubashkin was detained after the jury was dismissed, despite a request from his attorneys that he remain free on bail.

A hearing was set for Wednesday in Cedar Rapids to determine whether Rubashkin will be freed before his second trial, which is scheduled to begin Dec. 2.

During the trial that ended Thursday, prosecutors alleged that Rubashkin , as a manager of the former Agriprocessors plant in Postville in northeast Iowa, intentionally deceived the company's lender. Former Agriprocessors employees testified that Rubashkin personally directed them to create fake invoices in order to show St. Louis-based First Bank that the plant had more money flowing in than it really did.

Cook argued that Rubashkin never read the loan agreement with First Bank and tried to portray him as a bumbling businessman in over his head.

About 20 supporters and members of Rubashkin 's family sat generally silent during the hourlong court proceeding.

Rubashkin turned around in court several times while federal Judge Linda Reade read the verdict and smiled at his wife, Leah, at one point passing her a note.