WATERLOO --- Jurors in Sholom Rubashkin's child labor trial continued to hear conflicting accounts of hiring practices at the Agriprocessors' plant Friday.
A woman who worked at the Postville plant as a teenager testified that she was first turned away when applied because she looked younger than the date of birth on her forged resident alien card --- too young to work in meatpacking.
But other former workers said it was obvious minors worked the plant.
Rubashkin is on trial for 83 counts of child labor violations. He also is awaiting sentencing for a federal fraud conviction stemming from bank loans to Agriprocessors.
"It would be like walking into a junior high school gymnasium," said Mark Spangler, a 48-year-old North Carolina resident who was at Agriprocessors in 2006 and 2007.
He said their ages were evident by their physical features and their behavior.
Spangler told jurors he brought up the matter with Gary Norris, a plant manager.
"His response was ‘What do you expect? They're a bunch of kids,'" Spangler said.
Spangler said he saw Sholom Rubashkin about twice when he worked at the plant. He said the executive was wearing an orange hardhat, one of the marks of ranking officials, but under cross-examination, he was shown photos of Rubashkin wearing a white hardhat.
The defense also brought up Spangler's prior misdemeanor larceny charges from Florida and got him to admit he was currently in jail and had been brought to the courthouse in a squad car. Spangler said he was terminated from the plant for missing work.
Later in the day, jurors heard from Floriberta Valenzo Morales, who came from Mexico and applied at Agriprocessors at age 15 using a resident alien card with a false date of birth.
She said plant officials didn't believe she was old enough and told her she couldn't work there unless she came back with more records that corroborated her birthday.
She told jurors her mother obtained a false birth certificate about a month later, and she returned to the plant.
Still, she said it was obvious she wasn't old enough.
"In all honesty it was obvious," she said "Even today I look young to some people. Imagine when I was 15."
Testimony is scheduled to continue Monday after the weekend break.
EARLIER STORY:
WATERLOO --- A woman who used to work in the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant as a teenager told jurors it was obvious that other youths were working at the plant in 2007 and 2008.
"There faces were like children. You could see that," said Yukary Hernandez Gonzales, 20, who was hired by the Postville plant when she was 15 and then rehired at age 17.
Her testimony came through a Spanish language translator.
Hernandez returned to the stand Friday as trial for Sholom Rubashkin resumed in Black Hawk County District Court. Rubashkin, a former Agriprocessors executive, is being tried on 83 counts of misdemeanor child labor violations. He also is awaiting sentencing on fraud charges in federal court.
Hernandez, a Mexican native, said she saw other youths from her school at the plant. She also told jurors it would be obvious to others that minors were at the plant.
The defense questioned Hernandez about prior statements she gave to investigators where she said it wasn't obvious. Those statements also said she had never been injured on the job, which contradicted her testimony on Thursday when she recounted how the sleeve of her frock became caught in a conveyor belt.
When pressed by the defense, she said she didn't remember giving that statement. She had been interviewed a number of times.
Hernandez, who was 18 by the time of the May 2008 immigration raid at the plant, had been sentenced to prison on federal false document charges.
A second witness on the stand Friday morning, Selvin Godinez of Guatemala, also had served time --- five months --- on federal charges.
He started at Agriprocessors in November 2006 at the age of 16 using a forged resident alien card with a date of birth that made him over 18.
He quit in January 2008 because they wouldn't give him a week of vacation. He returned to work in February 2008 after he turned 18, but he was told he had to give a different resident alien card to start.
He said he got another forged card, but this time it has his real date of birth.
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