Church Adviser May Have Warrant
By MARC LACEY and IAN URBINA
Published: February 13, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The man who was providing legal advice to the American church members arrested in Haiti may have a string of legal charges against him in the United States as well as a warrant for his arrest in El Salvador for sex trafficking, records show.
The man, Jorge Puello, was brought into the case from the Dominican Republic as a lawyer to help the 10 Americans arrested last month for trying to remove 33 children from the country after the earthquake without government permission. A Web site that was abruptly taken down on Friday described Mr. Puello and his cousin, Alejandro Puello, as law partners.
But Mr. Puello is not registered as a lawyer in the Dominican Republic, and Alejandro Puello said in an interview on Saturday that Jorge had no law degree, did not work with him and was now missing.
Exactly how Mr. Puello got involved in the case remains unclear. He said he had been hired as a lawyer by the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho, which five of the Americans attended. A lawyer for one of the 10 said Mr. Puello never represented his client.
Salvadoran police say they want to question Mr. Puello in connection with a sex trafficking ring that was broken up last year in which women and girls from Central America and the Caribbean were lured into prostitution through offers of modeling jobs. The suspect police are seeking is named Jorge Anibal Torres Puello, which Mr. Puello said was not his full name.
But Mr. Puello, who has denied any wrongdoing, said in an interview on Thursday that he was the president of an organization called the Sephardic Jewish Community in the Dominican Republic. Public records in the Dominican Republic indicate that on Nov. 1, 2007, that organization was registered to Jorge Anibal Torres Puello.
Public records and court documents in the United States also indicate that a person with the same name and birth date is considered a fugitive and is wanted by the Miami police, the United States Customs and the United States Marshals Service. The name and birth date are also the same as the man being pursued by the police in El Salvador and for whom Interpol has transmitted an arrest warrant.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/world/americas/14haiti.html?partner=rss&emc=rss~~~~~~~~Previously:
Adviser to Detained Americans in Haiti Is Investigated
By MARC LACEY and IAN URBINA
Published: February 11, 2010
http://graphics8.nytimes.com.nyud.net:8090/images/2010/02/12/world/12haiti_CA0_337-395/12haiti_CA0-popup.jpgLynsey Addario for The New York Times
Jorge Puello, who has been providing legal advice to a group of Americans jailed in Haiti.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The police in El Salvador have begun an investigation into whether a man suspected of leading a trafficking ring involving Central American and Caribbean women and girls is also a legal adviser to the Americans charged with trying to take 33 children out of Haiti without permission.
When the judge presiding over the Haitian case learned on Thursday of the investigation in El Salvador, he said he would begin his own inquiry of the adviser, a Dominican man who was in the judge’s chambers days before.
The inquiries are the latest twist in a politically charged case that is unfolding in the middle of an earthquake disaster zone. A lawyer for the group has already been dismissed after being accused of trying to offer bribes to get the 10 Americans out of jail.
The adviser, Jorge Puello, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that he had not engaged in any illegal activity in El Salvador and that he had never been in the country. He called it a case of mistaken identity. “I don’t have anything to do with El Salvador,” he said, suggesting that his name was as common in Latin America as John Smith is in the United States.
“There’s a Colombian drug dealer who was arrested with 25 IDs, and one of them had my name,” he said, not elaborating.
“Bring the proof,” he said when pressed about the child-trafficking accusations in the brief interview, which ended when he said he was entering an elevator. Reached later, he became angry and said he had broken no laws.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/world/americas/12haiti.html
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