Court Dismisses Accused Smuggler’s Appeal

Henry Pierre was challenging Senior Supreme Court Justice Jon Isaacs’ previous ruling, whichrefused a habeas corpus application.

Pierre allegedly helped to load 16 illegal immigrants onto a boat headed to Florida. He was also indicted by a US grand jury for his alleged role in the trafficking scheme.

US Border Patrol officers arrested Pierre’s alleged co-conspirators, Demetrius Saunders and Geno Rolle, after they found 16 undocumented immigrants on a beach in St. Lucie County, Florida on March 23, 2006.

Saunders and Rolle pleaded guilty to smuggling charges. They are currently serving three-year sentences in federal prison. The US Government was depending heavily on Rolle’s affidavit to support its request for Pierre’s extradition.

According to the affidavit, two days before the actual landing in Florida, there had been an earlier journey with the same 16 illegal immigrants, Pierre and Rolle. The two were co-captains on the vessel that was supposed to take the immigrants to Florida.

The affidavit said that Pierre and Rolle were to be paid $10,000 by a man only identified as John. However, after they were not paid, Rolle, in his affidavit, said they decided to rip John off by turning back midstream and telling the illegal immigrants they were turning back because they feared that they would have been discovered by US authorities.

They turned back, offloaded the immigrants and took them to a safe house where they fed them once a day for the next two days.

Rolle, in the affidavit, said Pierre took the 16 illegal immigrants to the dock and put them on the boat. Saunders later took the group into Florida.

After Rolle and Saunders were arrested and charged, they gave sworn testimony in the form of affidavits implicating Pierre in the conspiracy to send the immigrants into Florida.

Pierre was later arrested in Bimini after the popular TV show America’s Most Wanted (AMW) aired his profile.

He was represented by attorney Langton Hilton.

Neil Braithwaite, of the Attorney General’s Office, appeared on behalf of the US Government.

There were a number of false starts during yesterday’s court session.

Pierre did not arrive to court at time; therefore court got started at 10:30 a.m. Then, Mr. Hilton asked the court for 10 minutes to consult with his client, which the court granted. He later attempted to secure a one-week adjournment because he said he did not have an opportunity to file his skeleton arguments.

The court denied the adjournment request. Court of Appeal President Dame Joan Sawyer then asked Mr. Hilton to provide her with the skeleton arguments, which she reviewed on the bench.

There were a number of verbal spats between Dame Joan and Mr. Hilton. In the end, Dame Joan upheld the Supreme Court’s ruling and adopted the summary judgment of the Supreme Court Justice.

"The consensus of this panel is that the appeal should be dismissed," she said.

Pierre was later remanded into custody and will await extradition.

Mr. Braithwaite said Pierre’s extradition could happen within a matter of days, but noted that it is now in the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ hands.