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Sholom Rubashkin Looking for 50,000 Little Miracles

By Jewcy Staff / April 5, 2010

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In case you haven’t already made up your mind about Sholom Rubashkin, there is an e-mail currently making the rounds claiming that there is "gross disparity in prosecutorial treatment" of the former CEO of the Agriprocessors Inc.. While we aren’t 100% sure what the 50,000 signatures the email is asking for would end up doing, it does hip us to the fact that Rubashkin’s lawyers are "very concerned about his incarceration and his upcoming sentencing"; which makes sense, since the guy is GUILTY. Of course the people circulating the e-mail don’t want you to think about that fact: take a look at the picture of Sholom and his "autistic son, Moishe" and the two other kids that aren’t autistic, then you can maybe try and look past the 9,000+ violations of labor laws if you’re considering helping out poor Mr. Rubashkin. From the e-mail:

American Jewish leaders (including the leadership of Agudath Israel of America, Chabad Lubavitch, National Council of Young Israel and Rabbincal Alliance of America) who have been working closely with Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin””s lawyers are very concerned about his incarceration and his upcoming sentencing, currently scheduled for April 28. This tragic case is at a critical juncture right now, and demands our immediate attention and action. In issuing this call to our friends and constituents, we are in no way condoning any criminal conduct. However, as detailed in the memo below, prepared by a lawyer familiar with the case, it is clear that the federal government has been overly zealous in pursuing Mr. Rubashkin and has submitted him to considerably more severe restrictions and potential punishment than others in similar cases. The memo is quite an eye-opener, well worth reading despite its length. The bottom line is that Mr. Rubashkin is being kept in jail pending sentencing, and was not even allowed to go home for the Passover Seders despite his willingness to post a large bond and hire a full-time guard. With respect to the sentencing, he faces the possibility of life in prison (the Pre Sentence Report prepared by the probation department tallied the sentencing guidelines to be life in prison) and the probability of a 27 year sentence, – far beyond the sentences imposed on others whose crimes were significantly more severe than anything Mr. Rubashkin may have done. (Notably, Mark Turckan, who pled guilty to a 21 year cover up of misapplying funds from the SAME bank, and was found to have caused a 25 million dollar loss, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison.) We are therefore asking you, our friends and constituents, to take a few minutes to communicate your respectful concern over the handling of the Rubashkin case, and the excessive sentence being considered. Some suggestions for topics to be covered in your email or phone call: —Sholom Rubashkin shouldn’t be in jail pending sentencing He has a right to bail! —Stop treating Sholom Rubashkin more harshly than you have treated others! —Sholom Rubashkin should not be sentenced to a long prison term for his convictions. He did not gain personally from the mistakes he made and had no intention causing any monetary loss to anyone. These emails are critical and will be forwarded to the US Attorney handling the case. We are hopeful that this expression of public support will have a positive impact on the outcome of the case.