16612: Chamberlain: Haiti-U.S. Fugitive (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug 31 (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.