Some more on this matter:
From the New York Times:
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Ten Americans who tried to take 33 Haitian children out of the country last week without the government’s consent have been charged with child abduction and criminal conspiracy, as Haitian officials sought to reassert judicial control after the Jan. 12 earthquake.
The Americans, most of them members of a Baptist congregation from Idaho, had said they intended to rescue Haitian children left parentless in the quake and take them to what they described as an orphanage across the border in the Dominican Republic. But they acknowledged failing to seek approval to remove the children from Haiti, and several of the children have at least one living parent.
The Americans will face a potentially extended legal proceeding in Haiti and could, if convicted, face prison terms of up to 15 years.
In a sign of the cloudy nature of the case, the prosecutor, Mazar Fortil, decided not to pursue what could have been the most serious charge against the group, that of trafficking. The charges will now be considered by an investigative judge, who has up to three months to decide whether to pursue the matter further.
The leader of the group, Laura Silsby, a businesswoman who describes herself as a missionary as well, has also come under scrutiny at home in Idaho, where employees complain of unpaid wages and the state has placed liens on her company bank account.
The lawyer for the group, Edwin Coq, said after a hearing on Thursday that 9 of his 10 clients were “completely innocent,” but that, apparently in a reference to Ms. Silsby, “If the judiciary were to keep one, it could be the leader of the group.”
The Haitian capital lost courthouses, judges, lawyers and its main prison in the earthquake, straining the judiciary along with everything else. Prosecutors said this was the first criminal case to receive a hearing in Port-au-Prince since the natural disaster.
The hearing took place in a hilltop courthouse that had minor cracks in the walls and scores of squatters living outside. A crush of journalists sought access to the defendants on their way into the courthouse, where police officers in riot gear prevented access.
The Americans were transported in two Haitian police vehicles — one labeled “Child Protection Brigade” — from the police station where they have been held since the weekend to Port-au-Prince’s main criminal courthouse. Mr. Coq said beforehand that their immediate release was possible, and the police who transported the detainees took their luggage to the hearing as well in case they were to be freed.
Ms. Silsby, who had helped organize the group’s mission, sounded a hopeful note as she waited to be taken into court, saying, “We’re just trusting God for a positive outcome.”
But during the hearing, Jean Ferge Joseph, a deputy prosecutor, told the Americans that their case was not being dropped and that it would be sent to a judge for further review.
“That judge can free you, but he can also continue to hold you for further proceedings,” the deputy prosecutor said, according to Reuters.
When they received the news, the Americans did not appear distraught, Mr. Coq, their lawyer, said. “They prayed,” he said. “They looked down and prayed.”
Reuters, which had a reporter in the session, said that all 10 of the detainees acknowledged to the prosecutor that they had apparently violated the law when they tried to take the children from Haiti, although they said they were unaware of that until after they were detained.
“We did not have any intention to violate the law, but now we understand it’s a crime,” said Paul Robert Thompson, a pastor who led the group in prayer during a break in the session.
Ms. Silsby asked the prosecutor not only to release the group, whose members range in age from 18 to 55, but also to allow them to continue their work in Haiti.
“We simply wanted to help the children,” she said. “We petition the court not only for our freedom, but also for our ability to continue to help.”
As they were led out of the courthouse one by one for their return to jail, some of the Americans smiled as reporters surrounded them. They left without comment.
The Americans were arrested last Friday as they tried to take the 33 children by bus to the Dominican Republic, where they said they were in the process of leasing or building an orphanage. It is unclear if the group had arranged for someplace to house the children in the Dominican Republic.
A Web site for the group, the New Life Children’s Refuge, said that the Haitian children there would stay in a “loving Christian homelike environment” and be eligible for adoption through agencies in the United States.
Nevermind that at least several of the children still had living parents, who had apparently been told this was some kind of summer camp arrangement or education situation where the parents would be allowed to visit whenever they wanted. Imagine - you send your kid out of a ravaged area to a "summer camp", only to return to find out they have been given to someone else, are no longer your kid, and are now living in a foreign country.... I'm not a parent but it makes me sick to my stomach. Can't imagine how actual parents would feel.
The children are being taken care of now at SOS Children’s Villages, an Austrian-run orphanage in Port-au-Prince.
The Americans and members of their churches have said that they are innocent of any wrongdoing, and described the case as a misunderstanding. In an interview this week, Ms. Silsby said the group had come to Haiti to rescue children orphaned by the earthquake, and that “our hearts were in the right place.”
I'm sorry - even if you unintentionally break the law there is still a "wrongdoing" involved. They
might be innocent of malicious intent, but clearly they are guilty of breaking the law that requires an exit visa to take a child out of Haiti.
But some of the children had living parents, and some of those parents said that the Baptists had promised simply to educate the youngsters in the Dominican Republic and to allow them to return to Haiti to visit.
Like I said - imagine sending your kid off to school, then finding out they've been given (or worse yet, sold) to someone else.
Ms. Silsby had made her intentions known to child protection officials, human rights experts and Dominican authorities in Haiti, all of whom warned her that she could be charged with trafficking if she tried to take children out of the country without proper documentation.
In other words the stupid bitch was
warned repeatedly that she was fucking up but clearly she didn't care. I don't know if it was genuine stupidity or she just didn't take the foreign colored people seriously or what. I'm guessing she assumed Haiti was in enough chaos she could do whatever the fuck she wanted without consequence. Sucks to be her.
Some Haitian leaders have called the Americans kidnappers, but their case has created divisions. Outside the courthouse on Thursday, one onlooker backed the Americans. “The process they followed was wrong, but they were not stealing kids,” said Béatrice St.-Julien. “They came here to help us.”
Until Thursday, Haitian judicial officials had left open the possibility that the group could be returned to the United States for trial, sparing Haiti’s crippled justice system a high-profile criminal prosecution fraught with diplomatic and political land mines.
American officials have talked with Haitian judicial authorities about the case, but it is unclear exactly how much lobbying Washington is doing behind the scenes to affect the outcome. The State Department has said that whether to pursue charges for any possible violations of Haitian law remains a Haitian decision.
One expert said that by pursuing the case Haitian authorities seemed to be trying to make a point.
“Haiti’s decision to prosecute the Baptist missionaries may be motivated, in part, by the need to show its own people and the world that it is a viable entity that is tackling the grave problem of international child abductions in Haiti,” Christopher J. Schmidt, a lawyer with Bryan Cave L.L.P. in St. Louis who has been involved in multiple cases of international kidnapping, said in a statement.
Anyhow, here's an
article on Silsby's problems back home:
MERIDIAN, Idaho — The leader of the group of Americans charged on Thursday with abducting children in Haiti is an Idaho businesswoman with a complicated financial history that involves complaints from employees over unpaid wages, state liens on a company bank account and lawsuits in small claims court.
The leader, Laura Silsby, defaulted last July on the mortgage on a house in an unfinished subdivision here in Meridian, a suburb of Boise, according to the Ada County Tax Assessor’s Office. Yet in November, Ms. Silsby registered a new nonprofit, the New Life Children’s Refuge, at the address of the house, which she bought in 2008 for $358,000.
New Life Children’s Refuge is the name of the orphanage Ms. Silsby and the nine other Americans charged in Haiti said they had planned to establish in the Dominican Republic.
Ms. Silsby lost the house in Meridian to foreclosure on Dec. 7, records show, and it now stands empty, with signs in the yard promoting a foreclosure sale.
But, apparently, she is still running a business out of it. Or something. Using the address of a property she no longer owns - that just doesn't sound kosher.
“I get mail for her all the time,” said LaChelle Bohner, who lives two doors down from the house. Ms. Bohner said the mail included collection notices.
Ms. Silsby and her business, Personal Shopper, which provides shopping services for Internet customers, have faced multiple legal claims.
According to state records and officials, Personal Shopper has been named 14 times in complaints from employees over unpaid wages. Among the reasons cited by the employees for having not been paid were “no money for payroll” and “fully investor funded and investors have been hit hard by the economy.”
Employees won nine of the cases, forcing Personal Shopper to pay nearly $31,000 in wages and $4,000 in fines. The Idaho Department of Labor initially put liens on a company bank account to get the money.
“They didn’t like that so they said: ‘How much do we owe? We’ll pay it,’ ” said Bob Fick, a spokesman for the department, adding that unpaid wage complaints were not uncommon.
State officials said Personal Shopper had paid all the wage claims upheld by the state. But another former employee has sued Personal Shopper in civil court. A jury trial is set for Feb. 22 over a claim by the employee, Robin Oliver, that Personal Shopper owes her more than $22,000.
A lawyer for Ms. Silsby said Thursday that he could not comment on the case.
One of the people awarded unpaid wages was Chris Holmes, who said he was not surprised that Ms. Silsby had run into trouble in Haiti. Mr. Holmes, who did database work, said Ms. Silsby often showed a “lack of forethought,” shifting business models to suit the investors who kept the company afloat.
“She would come up with an idea on Wednesday, and on Friday there would be a new idea that was 180 degrees different,” Mr. Holmes said.
Looks like this woman's problems didn't start in Haiti. Apparently she's played fast and loose with laws before.
You know, it takes a special type of slimeball to not pay wages. I'm losing what little sympathy I had for this bitch. She sounds like a con artist of some sort.
In 2006, Ms. Silsby received a Femtor Award for “Businesswoman of the Year”; the awards are sponsored by the eWomenNetwork, a group that promotes women and their businesses.
Ms. Silsby, who has young children in Idaho, was divorced in 2007. She and her former husband lived in Meridian, but public records were not clear about where she currently resides.
The offices of Personal Shopper, in an office park in Meridian, have been shuttered this week, with mail dating to at least last week stacked on the floor.
Clint Henry, pastor of Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, where five of the Americans charged in Haiti attend services, said Ms. Silsby had attended his church for about two years.
“You wouldn’t find any finer Christian people than these people,” Mr. Henry said in an interview earlier this week.
That's an incredibly low standard for Christians, if you ask me. If I was a Christian I'd be embarrassed by a statement like that.
