Former Agriprocssors exec Rubashkin cleared of all child labor violations

Rubashkin found not guilty in child labor law case

  By JEFF REINITZ For the Globe Gazette | Posted: Monday, June 7, 2010 1:52 pm

WATERLOO --- Former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin has been acquitted of allowing minors to work at the Postville slaughterhouse.

The jury indicated they had reached a verdict shortly before 1 p.m. Monday [ June 7, 2010].

Jurors acquitted him of all 67 counts of child labor violations.

Rubashkin is awaiting sentencing on federal bank fraud charges in connection with loans Agriprocessors received. Federal immigration charges stemming from the May 2008 raid at the plant were dropped earlier.

State labor officials began investigating information that minors worked at the plant in the months before the May 2008 immigration raid.

Prosecutors said Rubashkin, who was described at the CEO and co-vice president of the company, knew underage workers held jobs at the facility and did nothing to remove them or change hiring practices.

Twenty-six former Agriprocessors employees from Guatemala and Mexico testified they had worked at the plant as teenagers. The state said they worked with dangerous chemicals and some tended power-driven equipment like conveyor belts.