Friday, May 21, 2010
Rubashkin trial: Former workers take stand
4:25 p.m., Waterloo, Ia. — Court is adjourned until Monday morning.
Abner Lopez Azurdia started assembling boxes and weighing meat at the kosher slaughterhouse when he was 15. He did not offer details on how many hours he worked, or if he was around chemicals or dangerous equipment.
Azurdia said he has no legal status in the U.S., but is seeking a U-visa with the assistance of an immigration attorney.
On cross-examination, Azurdia said he saw federal immigration agents scream and call them rats before chaining them together. He said the experience terrified him.
“When they came in, they came in yelling. They told us to come out because a lot of agents were coming. They yelled at us to come out because to them were were just rats or mice they had to find,” he said.
3:30 p.m., Waterloo, Ia. — After the break, Rucal identifies Derrick as her supervisor.
Upon questioning by the defense, she says they knew each other by name.
“Yes, sometimes he’d call me by name,” she said through an interpreter.
“So you knew him?” Weinhardt said.
“Correct,” correct she said.
On re-direct, Assistant Iowa Attorney General Laura Roan asks Rucal if she knows the supervisor’s name. She said she does not know his name.
The next witness, Alvaro Jerez Ravaric, said he started working at Agriprocessors at 16. He cut heads off chickens and processed turkeys, he said.
He said he may be deported after testifying, but an immigration attorney has applied for a one-year work permit on his behalf.
On cross-examination, he said he didn’t think his supervisors knew he was a minor. He was 18 at the time of the immigration raid, and served five months in prison.
He also said he would not have recognized Rubashkin on the street, and said the former plant executive rarely passed through his department at the plant.
2:50 p.m., Waterloo, Ia. — Nilda Nuritza Rucal said she started de-feathering 45 chickens per minute with scissors the same day she applied for work at Agriprocessors. She worked from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., and made about $300 per week. She was 15.
No one showed her how to do the job, so she said she learned by observation. She worked in a large team that gathered around a table to process the birds.
“At first, it was very difficult. I didn’t know what to do,” she said.
Defense attorney Mark Weinhardt quizzed her about an interview she gave in August 2008 to a state criminal investigator in which she admitted to lying about her identity to gain employment.
But Rucal said she wasn’t trying to fool Agriprocessors.
“They knew what kind of identification I had,” she said.
When state labor investigators came to Agriprocessors a month before the immigration raid, Rucal testified that supervisors told her not to talk to them or “we would be fired.”
“Those investigators didn’t do anything to stop you from working at Agriprocessors until the time of the raid?” Weinhardt said.
Rucal replied she didn’t give them her real age until after the May 2008 immigration raid.
Weinhardt then asked about sexual harassment she received from a supervisor, Eduardo Toj.
The attorneys conferred with the judge when Weinhardt began asking about which supervisors sexually harassed her.
http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2010/05/21/rubashkin-trial-to-resume-this-afternoon/
Abner Lopez Azurdia started assembling boxes and weighing meat at the kosher slaughterhouse when he was 15. He did not offer details on how many hours he worked, or if he was around chemicals or dangerous equipment.
Azurdia said he has no legal status in the U.S., but is seeking a U-visa with the assistance of an immigration attorney.
On cross-examination, Azurdia said he saw federal immigration agents scream and call them rats before chaining them together. He said the experience terrified him.
“When they came in, they came in yelling. They told us to come out because a lot of agents were coming. They yelled at us to come out because to them were were just rats or mice they had to find,” he said.
3:30 p.m., Waterloo, Ia. — After the break, Rucal identifies Derrick as her supervisor.
Upon questioning by the defense, she says they knew each other by name.
“Yes, sometimes he’d call me by name,” she said through an interpreter.
“So you knew him?” Weinhardt said.
“Correct,” correct she said.
On re-direct, Assistant Iowa Attorney General Laura Roan asks Rucal if she knows the supervisor’s name. She said she does not know his name.
The next witness, Alvaro Jerez Ravaric, said he started working at Agriprocessors at 16. He cut heads off chickens and processed turkeys, he said.
He said he may be deported after testifying, but an immigration attorney has applied for a one-year work permit on his behalf.
On cross-examination, he said he didn’t think his supervisors knew he was a minor. He was 18 at the time of the immigration raid, and served five months in prison.
He also said he would not have recognized Rubashkin on the street, and said the former plant executive rarely passed through his department at the plant.
2:50 p.m., Waterloo, Ia. — Nilda Nuritza Rucal said she started de-feathering 45 chickens per minute with scissors the same day she applied for work at Agriprocessors. She worked from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., and made about $300 per week. She was 15.
No one showed her how to do the job, so she said she learned by observation. She worked in a large team that gathered around a table to process the birds.
“At first, it was very difficult. I didn’t know what to do,” she said.
Defense attorney Mark Weinhardt quizzed her about an interview she gave in August 2008 to a state criminal investigator in which she admitted to lying about her identity to gain employment.
But Rucal said she wasn’t trying to fool Agriprocessors.
“They knew what kind of identification I had,” she said.
When state labor investigators came to Agriprocessors a month before the immigration raid, Rucal testified that supervisors told her not to talk to them or “we would be fired.”
“Those investigators didn’t do anything to stop you from working at Agriprocessors until the time of the raid?” Weinhardt said.
Rucal replied she didn’t give them her real age until after the May 2008 immigration raid.
Weinhardt then asked about sexual harassment she received from a supervisor, Eduardo Toj.
The attorneys conferred with the judge when Weinhardt began asking about which supervisors sexually harassed her.
http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2010/05/21/rubashkin-trial-to-resume-this-afternoon/
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