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Eight Americans Released From Haitian Custody, Two Still Detained

Lindy Tolbert |
February 18, 2010 | 12:42 p.m. PST

Staff Reporter

A Haitian judge released eight Americans Wednesday after determining there
was not enough evidence against them. (John Guenther)






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Eight of 10 Americans detained in Haiti under suspicion of child trafficking were released Wednesday after a judge determined that there was not enough evidence to bring child abduction charges against them.

The other two members, leader Laura Silsby and her live-in nanny Charisa Coulter, are being kept for further questioning regarding the orphanage they were planning to build.

Coulter was recently hospitalized in Haiti to obtain treatment for her diabetes.

The 10 group members were charged with trying to take 33 Haitian children to the Dominican Republic without adoption papers or the appropriate documentation.

Since the earthquake, Prime Minister Max Bellerieve has put a halt on all adoptions, unless approved by himself, as a method of preventing child trafficking.

The group, which is affiliated with the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, was visiting Haiti as missionaries on what the church called a "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission."

Aviol Fleurant, the group's lawyer, said he expected the judge to release the pair "in a few days."

Silsby reportedly procured several acres of land in Maganate and had already picked a name for the establishment, "The Dominican New Life Children's Home."

Many of the children, initially thought to be orphans, have had family members located.

A few parents of children from the village Calebasse have come forward and said they voluntarily gave the group their children with the understanding that the children would be educated and looked after, something the parents could not do.

Additionally, a man known as Jorge Puello, posing as a Dominican legal adviser, was also in contact with the group, until information emerged that he is wanted in four countries on sex-trafficking charges and of illegally smuggling immigrants.

Fleurant was quoted as saying that  "Puello presented himself as a man of God, and now look what happened. I'm looking for my money, and Laura Silsby is still in jail."

The New York Times reports that other members in the group also say they have been misled.

An NBC News producer received a note from the eight that were released, saying, "Laura wants to control."  "We're afraid...We only came as volunteers.  We had NOTHING to do with any documents and have been lied to."

The note was signed by all eight volunteers.

In response to the general outcry, Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton has maintained that the outcome will be decided by Haiti's court of law, a statement supported by Paul Denis, Haiti's minister of justice.

Denis said that the group members "would be judged like everyone else."



 

Buzz

Craig Gillespie directed this true story about "the most daring rescue mission in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard.”

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