The owner and managers of the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant were charged Tuesday with more than 9,000 misdemeanors alleging they hired minors and had children younger than 16 handle dangerous equipment such as circular saws and meat grinders... The state and federal charges are the first against operators of the Agriprocessors plant... Aside from handling dangerous equipment, the complaint says children were exposed to dangerous chemicals such as chlorine solutions and dry ice... Chaim Abrams, a manager at the plant, said in a statement that Agriprocessors "vehemently denies" the allegations and "acted in good faith on the child labor issue. All of the minors at issue lied about their age in order to gain employment at the company," he said... Sonia Parras Konrad, an attorney representing more than 20 of the children, said her clients were as young as 14 when they started working at the plant. "We don't need to see any papers to see that someone is a child," she said.