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Trial Begins in Haitian 'Slave' Case

By David Oscar Markus

Lots of coverage for this trial. Judge Jose A. Gonzalez Jr. is presiding over the trial in Fort Lauderdale because the assigned judge had a conflict.

The defense case from the AP:

A family accused of keeping a Haitian teen as a slave and abusing her are the victims of an opportunist looking to get residency in this country, defense attorneys said Monday in opening statements.

The charges:

Maude Paulin and her mother, Evelyn Theodore, face federal charges that they illegally brought Simone Celestin into the U.S., kept her in involuntary servitude and conspired to violate her civil rights until the girl escaped in 2005.
Paulin's sister, Claire Telasco, also faces charges of forced labor and conspiracy. Paulin's ex-husband, Saintfort Paulin, faces a federal human trafficking charge. Each defendant has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The government case:

Prosecutors said Celestin was stolen at age 5 from her mother and grandmother in a remote mountain village and forced to pretend she was an orphan at the orphanage Theodore ran with her late husband in Ranquitte, Haiti.
Theodore's family got a flight attendant friend to bring the girl to the U.S. on a 29-day visa at age 14. For the next six years, her life consisted of 15-hour work days as an unpaid servant, no schooling and beatings, prosecutors said.
"She was never intended to leave this country or their custody," said Cyra Cay O'Daniel, a trial attorney with the U.S. Justice Department.
In court documents filed last year, prosecutors identified Celestin as a so-called "restavek," a term meaning "one who stays with" in Haitian Creole.

Here's the Herald coverage and the Sun-Sentinel.

The Herald gives some more from the defense:

But defense attorneys painted a starkly different picture in their opening statements, saying Maude Paulin had intended to adopt Celestin but her plan fell apart when she and her husband divorced. They also said family members tried to enroll Celestin in high school, but she only spoke and understood English at the level of a kindergartner.
''Maude Paulin is not guilty of what she's been charged with,'' said her attorney, Richard Dansoh. ``She tried to do her best. She fell short. It's not a crime to try your best and fail.''
He and other defense lawyers said Celestin may not have been cared for as well as Paulin's teenage daughter, Erika, but she was not treated like a modern-day slave. She received regular meals at home, went to church, watched pop artists like Britney Spears on TV, and went out with boys.
They said she did not escape with the help of family friends, as prosecutors contended, but rather ran away because she had grown up and wanted to be on her own.
''Does she report to the doctors that she's been treated like an animal in six years?'' said Theodore's attorney, Leonard Fenn, citing medical records at Jackson Memorial Hospital. ``Absolutely not.''
He said local and state authorities were well aware of Celestin's condition during her six years in Paulin's household, concluding she would be better off here than in Haiti. He said federal prosecutors pursued a criminal case after Celestin agreed to testify in exchange for lawful residency.
''In order for her to be here [in the United States], she has to play ball,'' Fenn told the 12-member jury.
Another defense attorney, Joel DeFabio, representing Telasco, said the evidence will show his client ``is not a slave master.''
''They did not have Simone come on weekends to clean the [Miramar] house,'' DeFabio said.
``It didn't happen.''

The Sun-Sentinel quotes the prosecutor's opening:

The four defendants might have "appeared ordinary" to outsiders, O'Daniel said, but they hid "a child whose life, will, identity and liberty had been stolen."

Should be interesting....

Full post as published by Southern District of Florida on February 26, 2008 (boomark / email).