16606: (Craig) Article: Haitian Cops Capture U.S. Child Molester (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>


Haitian Cops Capture U.S. Child Molester
August 31, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:24 p.m. ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Haitian police captured an
American convicted of child molestation who violated parole
and entered the Caribbean nation with fraudulent documents,
the U.S. Embassy said Sunday.

Mario "Tony" Leyva, 57, was captured Saturday afternoon
outside St. Marc and was incarcerated in the national
penitentiary in the capital, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman
Judith Trunzo said.

A group of Haitians recognized Leyva from a photograph the
U.S. Embassy published in the local papers and showed on
television. Residents tied him up and then called the
Haitian police.

He was expected to be flown back to the United States on
Tuesday.

Leyva, a self-ordained evangelist minister, traveled the
eastern United States and Haiti in the l980s, conducting
tent revivals.

He convinced parents to allow their young sons to travel
with him on tours, during which he sexually assaulted the
boys and sold some of them off as prostitutes, according to
court documents. It is not known whether Leyva is suspected
of abusing children in Haiti.

Leyva, a Cuban-American, was arrested in 1988 in Roanoke,
Va., and pleaded guilty to molesting more than 100 boys in
North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi,
Louisiana, Arkansas, Ohio and Indiana.

He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy and interstate
transportation of minors for prostitution.

After serving 11 years of a 20-year prison term, he was
released from Virginia state prison on parole in April
2002, but last month he fled the Roanoke area, where he was
required to live under supervision until 2008.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Haiti-US-Fugitive.html?ex=1063432051&ei=1&en=41478f58918cbf88
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company