20878: (Hermantin)Sun-Sentinel-Ex-Pines woman seeks jury trial (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Ex-Pines woman seeks jury trial

By Ann W. O'Neill
Staff Writer
Posted March 27 2004

A former Pembroke Pines woman pleaded not guilty Friday to a federal charge
of harboring an alien, answering a grand jury indictment arising from a
highly publicized child slavery investigation.

Marie Pompee appeared briefly before U.S. Magistrate Barry S. Seltzer in
Fort Lauderdale and requested a jury trial. She returns to court in April to
set a date.

Pompee's husband, Willy, who also was indicted, and the couple's oldest son
fled shortly after police raided the family's $400,000 home after a
12-year-old girl living there told acquaintances she had been sexually
molested. The two men are believed to be living in Haiti.

Defense attorney Martin Roth described his client as "a church-going,
mild-mannered woman" abandoned by her husband when police came knocking five
years ago. She now lives in Miami, he said.

Offering a glimpse at the defense case, Roth said media accounts that Pompee
and her husband kept the child as a household servant and occasional sex
slave for their son were exaggerated. He said Pompee took in the girl, who
was 9 when her mother died in Haiti. The child had no other relatives, he
added, and her future seemed bleak in the hemisphere's most impoverished
nation.

"Mrs. Pompee made what I think was a moral decision," Roth said.

The girl, referred to in the indictment as "W.K.," was nicknamed "Little
Hope" in South Florida's Haitian community when her plight first became
known in October 1999. She claimed to have been beaten, raped and forced to
work as a maid. Tests determined she was sexually active.

Roth would not comment on the sexual-abuse allegation, but insisted his
client treated the child with nothing but kindness. She was given her own
bedroom overlooking the pool at the Pompees' five-bedroom house. She had a
private bathroom, and was sent with the couple's other children to a private
school. "You don't send a slave to a private school," said Roth.

Pompee is charged with a single count of harboring an alien, which carries a
maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Pompee was not
charged with alien smuggling or child endangerment.

"I'm gratified this was the only charge the grand jury returned," Roth
added. "I believe they acted responsibly."

Roth said the girl, now nearly 18, lives with foster parents and has
attempted to contact Pompee. He said he advised his client not to respond
for now to avoid possible additional charges of obstructing justice or
tampering with a witness.

The case came to light when the girl befriended employees of a Fort
Lauderdale modeling school after responding to a television ad. During daily
calls, details of the girl's life slowly emerged.

She said she slept on the floor and was forced to clean the house. She said
she was not allowed to have any personal possessions and was hardly fed.
Then details of the alleged sexual abuse came out.

The women, skeptical at first, believed the girl's story. After they spoke
to a teacher, police were called and the girl was taken from the Pompees'
home.

Willy Pompee was a well-known businessman in Hialeah, where he ran a
business called "Willy's Rags," buying used clothing he resold in Haiti.

Ann W. O'Neill can be reached at awoneill@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4531.



Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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