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Testimony ended and closing arguments were heard Friday in a trial stemming from immigration raids last year in O'Neill, Nebraska. Jack Williams interviewed Fred Knapp of NET News about trial developments.

Fred, could you bring us up to speed on what happened today?

One of two remaining defendants, Mayra Jimenez, took the stand on her own behalf. Jimenez was the office manager at O'Neill Ventures, a tomato growing and shipping plant in O'Neill.

Earlier, there was testimony about problems with workers supplied to that plant by Juan Pablo Sanchez Delgado, a local businessman -- problems including workers not being paid, being injured on the job, and working too many hours.

But when Jimenez was questioned by her lawyer, Candace Wooster, she admitted she was aware of those concerns, but did not know the workers were in the country illegally. And she said also that others who had testified against her had reason to lie, because they want to stay in the country and they could do that by helping the prosecution.

And what did the prosecution had to say about that?

Lesley Woods of the U.S. Attorney's Office displayed emails and tapped phone call transcripts that appeared to show Jimenez knew Sanchez Delgado wasn't deducting taxes from workers paychecks, even though he was legally required to do so, and he was taking the money.

According to one transcript, Jimenez laughed when Sanchez Delgado suggested she should slap a worker who fainted from an injury in the face to see her reaction.

There were also transcripts of her expressing fear of a raid or other actions by ICE -- Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Jimenez said even though she's a naturalized US citizen, for people like her from Mexico, that fear of ICE never goes away regardless of their legal status.

What about the other remaining defendant?

That's John Glidden, who managed several hog operations that Sanchez Delgado also supplied workers for. Like Jimenez, Glidden insists he never knew the workers were in the country illegally.

Glidden's lawyer, Carlos Monzon, said his client is a scapegoat being used to justify all the money and effort the government put into the raids. He said Sanchez Delgado, who's already pled guilty, was a thief, a liar, an opportunist and someone who testified for the prosecution only after cutting a deal to reduce his own maximum sentence from 50 years in prison to 10. And Monzon asked why the presidents and other higher officials of the companies that used those workers weren't on trial.

Fred, remind us again, what happened to the third defendant, John Good. He's no longer part of the trial.

Right. Judge John Gerrard ruled that, even though Good was alleged to have conspired to harbor illegal aliens like the other two defendants, it was a different conspiracy. Good owned Sanchez Delgado's house and the liquor license to the restaurant that Sandra Delgado ran, but wasn't involved with any of his staffing companies or his employees. And so the judge said that would be prejudicial to allow all the testimony against the other two to reflect on Good.

He could still be retried separately. That's up to the U.S. Attorney's office and they haven't decided yet.

So what happens now?

Well, Judge John Gerrard gave the jury instructions and sent them off to deliberate early Friday afternoon. They had apparently not reached a verdict by five o'clock. So I'm expecting theyll resume the deliberations on Monday.

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O'Neill immigration raid trial goes to jury - NET Nebraska