102487P.pdf   09/16/2011  United States  v.  Sholom Rubashkin
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  10-2487
                          and No:  10-3580
   U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa - Dubuque   
   [PUBLISHED] [Murphy, Author, with Riley, Chief Judge, and Smith,
   Circuit Judge]
   Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. Defendant failed to show
   that the district court's pretrial meetings with immigration officials and
   prosecutors concerning an immigration raid prejudiced the jury's verdict,
   and the district court did not err in denying his Rule 33 motion; when the
   issue of recusal is raised for the first time on appeal, review is under the
   plain error doctrine, and there is nothing in the record to show the district
   court erred in not recusing itself sua sponte; nothing in the record reveals
   evidence of bias or prejudice towards defendant, and he offers no reason
   to believe the jury would have reached a contrary result with a different
   judge; where defendant was charged with both financial crimes and
   immigration offenses arising out of his meatpacking business, the district
   court did not err in scheduling the financial trial first; no error in 
   allowing the introduction of evidence of immigration violations to show
   defendant's company had broken a law, statute or regulation in violation
   of its loan agreement with its lender; jury instructions on the elements of
   fraud and on the offense of harboring illegal aliens were not erroneous;
   money laundering convictions did not merge with any other crimes;
   amount of fraud loss was properly calculated; district court properly
   weighed the 3553(a) factors in setting sentence, and it did not impose a
   substantively unreasonable sentence.