24869: Hermantin (News) Former Haitian police commander guilty in drug case

[sak-pase@bimini.ws]

leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Former Haitian police commander guilty in drug case
By Ann W. ONeill
Staff Writer
April 21, 2005

A former commander of investigations for the Haitian National Police 
admitted in federal court Wednesday to taking more than $760,000 in 
protection money from Colombian cocaine traffickers using the impoverished 
island as a stopover.

Rudy Therassan, 40, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Donald Graham 
to conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and launder drug 
money. He has agreed to cooperate with U.S. investigators in hopes of 
shortening a minimum, 10-year prison sentence.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Kirkpatrick said in court that Therassan was 
one of several corrupt Haitian police officials who helped Colombian 
traffickers unload more than a ton of cocaine from planes allowed to land on 
Haiti's Highway 9.

The cocaine then was shipped to the United States.

Therassan agreed to forfeit assets he purchased with the drug money, 
including cash, investment accounts, jewelry, and two houses in Wellington, 
Palm Beach County.

Therassan's three daughters wiped tears from their eyes as he entered his 
plea. He is to be sentenced on June 15.

Therassan was among seven Haitian police officials swept up last year in the 
investigation of cocaine and corruption in the administration of ousted 
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. That investigation is continuing.

He agreed to assist by telling what he knows to DEA and IRS agents and 
testifying before grand juries and at trials. If prosecutors Kirkpatrick and 
David Weinstein find that Therassan has provided "substantial assistance," 
they agreed to ask for a reduction in his sentence.

Court documents filed in connection with the case portrayed Therassan as a 
corrupt cop who once took a list that implicated Haitian officials from the 
pocket of a dead Haitian drug smuggler. Accounts differ, but some informants 
identified Therassan as the killer, saying he was acting on orders from 
someone higher up in the Haitian government, according to court documents.

For Therassan to receive a break in his sentence, prosecutors will have to 
vouch that he committed no acts of violence, according to terms of his plea 
agreement.

Bush administration and U.S. Justice Department officials have said publicly 
that authorities in Miami are looking into whether Aristide, once a populist 
priest, was corrupted by drug money.

Carlos B. Castillo, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Miami, 
declined comment. Ira Kurzban, a Miami lawyer who represents Aristide, has 
denied the former president had any dealings with drug traffickers.

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


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