30443: (news) Chamberlain: Constant loses court plea (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By TOM HAYS

   NEW YORK, May 22 (AP) -- A judge rejected a plea deal Tuesday for a
Haitian paramilitary leader in a Brooklyn fraud case, saying he was
disturbed by murder and torture charges facing the man in his homeland.
   Charges that Emmanuel "Toto" Constant ordered killings and torture in
the Caribbean nation in the 1990s, if true, "are heinous, and the court
cannot in good conscience consent to the previously negotiated sentence,"
state Supreme Court Justice Abraham Gerges said in a written ruling.
   Constant, 50, who has lived in the United States for more than a decade,
pleaded guilty this year to second-degree grand larceny with the
understanding he would be sentenced to one to three years in prison.
   Prosecutors and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had urged the
judge to sentence Constant to time served, about 10 months, to speed his
deportation to Haiti.
   Instead, State Supreme Court Justice Abraham Gerges decided to undo
Constant's plea deal, forcing him to withdraw his guilty plea and stand
trial on charges that he defrauded lenders out of more than $1.7 million.
If convicted, Constant would face five to 15 years in prison.
   Constant's lawyer, Marie Pereira, did not immediately return a phone
message. In court Monday, Constant insisted that he has become a scapegoat
for atrocities in the Caribbean nation and claimed he would be killed if he
was forced to return.
   The Center for Constitutional Rights has claimed that Haiti's justice
system is too unstable to ensure Constant's case there would be properly
prosecuted. The civil rights group also argued the proposed sentence in the
fraud case was too lenient, given Constant's background.
   Jeffrey Lerner, a spokesman for state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo,
said: "We're prepared to go to trial."
   Constant, the 6-foot-4 son of a military officer, emerged as the feared
leader of the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH,
after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's presidency was toppled in 1991.
   Human rights groups allege that between 1991 and 1994, FRAPH terrorized
and slaughtered slum-dwellers loyal to Aristide. When Aristide returned to
power in 1994, Constant fled to the United States.
   Despite a 1995 deportation order, Constant was allowed to remain because
of instability in Haiti. He kept a low profile, living with relatives in
Queens until being jailed last year in the mortgage fraud case.