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CARIBBEAN TODAY


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Mistrial in ex-Miramar commissioner's gun case


MIRAMAR, Florida A judge
in South Florida has declared a
mistrial in a court matter involv-

born former
Miramar City
Commissioner
Fitzroy
Salesman after
learning that a
juror had
brought a dic-
tionary to the Salesman
jury room.
 Broward
Circuit Judge Matthew Destry
had earlier ordered jurors to quit
deliberating pending a hearing on
the issue.
 Salesman, 52, a former
commissioner of Miramar, a city
north of Miami and south of
Fort Lauderdale, is charged
with assault with a firearm.
 The controversy with the
dictionary started on Mar. 2
when the jury asked for the defi-
nition of "imminent" in trying to
decide whether Salesman was in
imminent danger when con-
fronted by two teenage boys
during an altercation in a crowd-
ed supermarket in Nov. 2007.


 Prosecutors said Salesman
reacted by pulling a gun on the
teens because he "feared for his
life".
 Court officials said the juror
apparently brought the diction-
ary into the jury room on the
morning of Mar. 3 to look up
the word "imminent". Several
jurors said they also read the
definition from the dictionary.

'HARMLESS'
 The juror who brought in
the dictionary, John Fanning,
said he didn't think anything was
wrong with looking up the word
or bringing in the dictionary.
 "I thought it was harmless,"
he said. "I really don't like what
happened here. It was a waste
of time to me. We just weren't
sure about the word."
 A new trial is expected to
start next month.
 Prosecutors and Salesman
agreed a mistrial was appropri-
ate despite spending almost two
weeks battling it out in court.
 "The law is clear on this.
Jurors have to rely on the law
and not definitions in a diction-
ary," said Eric Schwartzreich,


Salesman's attorney.
 If convicted, Salesman
would face a mandatory three-
year prison sentence.
 He was slated to be on the
Mar. 10 ballot, seeking to
reclaim his position. Now, politi-
cal observers say voters will
have to make a decision about
whether to choose Salesman
without knowing whether he
can truly serve the term.
 Since Salesman would still
have a felony charge pending, if
he wins his political race, Florida
Governor Charlie Crist would
issue a new order suspending him
from office, according to Crist's
spokesman, Sterling Ivey. That
would force the city to hold a spe-
cial election to fill Salesman's seat.
 Miramar held a special
election last year to fill
Salesman's seat after he was
suspended for a "Driving under
the Influence charge", on which
he was later acquitted.

Salesman vows to run on his
"record". See related feature on
page 7.
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Jamaicans among dead in New York plane crash


BUFFALO, New York Four
Jamaicans were among 50
people who were killed in a
plane crash here last month.
 The Continental
Connection flight from
Newark, New Jersey was on its
approach to Buffalo Niagara
International Airport when it
crashed shortly after 10 p.m. on
Feb. 12. There were no sur-
vivors from the 45 passengers


and four crew members on
board. One person on the
ground was also killed.
 The Jamaicans who per-
ished on the ill-fated flight were
identified as Danny Massop,
42, his wife Dawn Massop, 43,
their 13-year-old son Shaun
Ferrice Reid, and an unnamed
sister of Mrs. Massop.
 According to a relative in
Jamaica, the family was in a


state of shock.
 "This has affected the family
k rnhll said Kenneth Meikle
last month. "It's not only the hus-
band but the wife, the son and a
sister in law. The family was only
in Jamaica two weeks ago."
 Investigations were con-
tinuing up to late last month
to determine the cause of the
crash.
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March 2009


 Hundreds rally to protest


U.S. deportation of Haitians


FORT LAUDERDALE,
Florida Around 250 persons
attended a rally in Pompano
Beach just north of here late
last month urging the Barack
Obama administration to stop
deportations to Haiti.
 Speakers at the Feb. 28
rally said the United States
government should grant
Temporary Protected Status
(TPS) to Haitians because of
the humanitarian crisis facing
the impoverished Caribbean
nation, which is still struggling
to recover from a serious of
deadly storms that devastated
the country last year.
 If TPS is granted, thou-
sands of Haitians living in the
U.S. illegally would be given
the right to remain and work
in the country.
 Immigration and Customs
Enforcement figures show
that more than 30,000 Haitian


nationals have been ordered
to return to their home coun-
try. Around 6,000 of them are
being held in U.S. detention
centers.
 Hip hop artiste and
 Haitian
 Goodwill
 Ambassador
 Wyclef Jean
 made a sur-
 prise appear-
 ance at the
 event.
 "It's impor-
 tant that
Wyclef Jean Haitians get
 the justice that
our Cuban brothers and sis-
ters get," said Jean.
 "This is not a Haitian
cause, it's a human being
cause."


 Holder makes first


Caribbean visit as AG


WASHINGTON Newly-
appointed United States
Attorney General Eric Holder,
Jr. made his first official visit to
the Caribbean late last month,
touring the Guantinamo Bay
detention center in Cuba.
 Holder, the son of a
Barbadian father, visited the
Spanish-speak-
ing Caribbean
island as part
of the Barack
Obama admin-
istration's
review of its
pledge to close
the center in
eastern Cuba.
 U.S. Holder
Justice
Department officials said Holder
engaged in discussions with offi-
cials at the base on detention
and interrogation practices.
Matthew A. Miller, a Justice
Department spokesman, said the
U.S. attorney general discussed
case histories of specific
detainees and charges which
were pending before President
Obama suspended military com-
missions as part of a comprehen-
sive terrorism policy review.

FIRST
 Holder, 58, was officially
sworn in last month as the first
Caribbean American attorney
general of the U.S. He is also
the first black attorney general.
 "Nowhere but in this great
country could a person like me
or the president hope to achieve
the positions we are now so for-
tunate to hold," said Holder,
after Vice President Joe Biden
administered the oath of office.
 The U.S. Senate had voted


overwhelmingly to confirm
Holder as the highest law
enforcement official in America,
becoming the nation's 82nd
attorney general. Holder is now
in charge of about 110,000
employees at the U.S. Justice
Department.
 Meantime, detainees'
lawyers and human rights groups
have assailed an 85-page report
that U.S. Navy Admiral Patrick
M. Walsh sent to the White
House recently, declaring condi-
tions at the Guantinamo Bay
prison as humane.
 "There is no basis to
believe, other than his say-so,
that this was an independent
report," said Vincent Warren,
executive director of the
Washington-based Center for
Constitutional Rights.
 Admiral Walsh, appointed
by Secretary of Defense Robert
M. Gates to conduct a review of
Guantinamo conditions that
was ordered by the president,
conceded that there had been
widespread accusations of vio-
lence against detainees, humili-
ating treatment and other abus-
es. But "we found no such evi-
dence," he told reporters.
 The report addressed 27 cat-
egories of treatment, including
health care and disciplinary rules.
It also proposed many possible
improvements, including more
human contact for detainees and,
to assure humane treatment,
videotaping their interaction with
guards. But detainees' lawyers
issued their own report, and pro-
duced letters from some of their
clients, describing severe isolation
and brutal tactics.
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