United States-Judge denies new venue for Meat Boss Trial.

A federal judge yesterday denied requests by Agriprocessors Inc. and the company’s former chief executive officer Sholom Rubashkin for their trials on immigration-related charges to be transferred to another venue.

The company and Rubashkin said the trial, scheduled to be conducted in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, would be unfair due to "inflammatory" pre-trial publicity and asked for the trial to be moved to Chicago, Ill., or Minneapolis, Minn. Agriprocessors is located near Cedar Rapids in Postville, Iowa.

However, Judge Linda Reade determined that pretrial publicity was not as corrupting and extensive as the defendants suggested. She did note, though, that the trial is not scheduled until September, and pretrial publicity could heat up between now and then, and she left open the option of reversing her decision when jury questionnaires are returned for the trial later this year.

Agriprocessors, Rubashkin and other company managers and supervisors face federal charges of aiding and abetting the employment of illegal immigrants after federal officers raided the company’s plant in Postville and arrested nearly 400 workers for being in the U.S. illegally (Feedstuffs, May 19, 2008).

Separately, Rubashkin faces charges related to bank fraud and money laundering.

The trial is set for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa. Reade is the district’s chief judge.