The Des Moines Register reports:
A federal judge has denied Sholom Rubashkin’s request to be released on bail until he is sentenced on 86 financial fraud convictions.
Chief Judge Linda Reade ruled that Rubashkin, the former vice president of Agriprocessors, Inc. poses an escape risk if released.
Rubashkin should remain in jail because of the “powerful incentive to flee” in the wake of his convictions last week, she wrote, as well as his purported efforts to help another indicted manager escape to Israel.
Federal prosecutors argued this week that Rubashkin helped a co-defendant, Hosam Amara, flee the country after a May 2008 immigration raid at the kosher slaughterhouse.
Defense attorneys presented Reade with 1,340 letters from Rubashkin’s supporters, and 43 people who offered the equity to their homes as collateral.Reade acknowledged Rubashkin’s support in the Orthodox Jewish community, and recognized his commitment to his family in the northeast Iowa town of Postville.
“Nevertheless, the court finds that this evidence does not rise to the ‘clear and convincing’ level necessary to show” that Rubashkin will not flee the country, Reade wrote.
Rubashkin was held at the Linn County Correctional Facility this week. His sentencing date has not been set.
