With the filing of 9,311 charges by the Iowa attorney general’s office on Tuesday, a giant stride has been taken toward finally ending this increasingly complex, increasingly sordid and continually shady chain of events. All of the charges stem from state child labor law violations involving 32 children under the age of 18, including seven who were under 16. In addition, two human resource managers will face federal charges.

At least — at the very least — the legal system has now taken notice of the plight of the workers in the Postville plant. There is a huge mess to clean up and care has to be taken in how this is done. Yes, there are legal issues.

In many ways the variety of charges that were brought on Tuesday begins to tell the sad story of what has occurred in Postville. Altogether, the attorney general’s complaint cites no less than five sections of Iowa’s child labor laws that were violated at Agriprocessors’ facility. Among them: Employing a child under the age of 18 in a packing plant, exposing children under 18 to hazardous chemicals, and various violations regarding working hours in a day and working days in a week.

Yes, the track record at this particular location has, obviously, been less than stellar. But there are also 1,800 jobs and a small Iowa town at stake. It’s important that this is taken care of as quickly and effectively as possible, if only for that reason. Postville was once held up as an example of the possibilities that diversity affords, with its multiplicity of ethnicities — old descendants of German and Norwegian immigrants, Hasidic Jews from places like Ukraine and Russia, and the Mexicans, Guatemalans and Filipinos who worked in the two packing plants.

That, however, may all be in the past — perhaps thanks to Intercontinental Exchange, perhaps thanks to Abraham Rubashkin, or perhaps this melting pot was, sadly, doomed from the beginning.

Whatever the cause, wherever the fault, these charges may finally allow us — and Postville — to begin to see the end of the tunnel. To be sure, there is more to come. Indictments bring subpoenas, trials, hearings, legal maneuvers and verdicts — and verdicts generally bring appeals, which beget more appeals, which beget more appeals, and so on — one of the sad but true facts inherent in our legal system today. But there will, eventually, be an end. An end which, hopefully, began on Tuesday.