CaribWorldNews, MIAMI, FL, Weds. May 21, 2008: A 52-year-old Haitian national and Miami school teacher was yesterday sentenced to 87 months in jail for forcing a young Haitian teenager to work as a restavec in their home without any pay.
Maude Paulin is also set to spend three years in a supervised release program. Her ex-husband, Saintfort Paulin, was sentenced to 18 months of probation, including six months in home confinement, and was ordered to pay a $500 fine.
The two were also jointly ordered to pay $162,765 in restitution to the victim, Simone Celestin.
Mrs. Paulin regretted her actions in court yesterday but insisted she wanted only good things for the girl. `I love Simone with all my heart,` Paulin told Senior U.S. District Judge Jose A. Gonzalez Jr. at a sentencing hearing. `I regret it. I blame myself.`
But the judge called the act `an extremely serious crime.`
The Paulins` along with Mrs. Paulin`s mother, Evelyn Theodore, were found guilty on March 4, 2008 of conspiring to violate the victim’s civil rights and of forcing Celestin to work for them. The jury also found Maude Paulin, Theodore and Saintfort Paulin guilty of harboring an undocumented migrant. A fourth defendant, Claire Telasco, was acquitted of the conspiracy and forced labor charges.
The evidence at trial revealed that in 1999, Maude and Saintfort Paulin and Theodore arranged for the then-14-year-old victim to be brought illegally to the Miami-area from Haiti to work in Theodore and Paulin’s home. Between 1999 and June 2005, Theodore and Maude Paulin forced Celestin to work in their home as a domestic servant. Celestin typically worked up to 15 hours a day, seven days a week, cooking, cleaning and doing other household and yard work for the defendants.
Theodore and Maude Paulin compelled Celestin to perform this work through a combination of psychological coercion and physical force, including striking Celestin with their hands, fists and other objects and threatening to have Celestin jailed and sent to Haiti if she refused to work, prosecutors said.
Celestin was not paid for her work, nor was she provided formal or informal schooling despite her young age. In June 2005, Celestin escaped from the defendants with the assistance of a family friend who had witnessed this treatment.
`These defendants coerced a vulnerable 14-year-old girl into their personal service for six years,` said Acting Assistant Attorney General Becker. `I applaud the courage of Celestin in this case, who made this prosecution possible. The Department of Justice is committed to work vigorously to end this type of forced servitude.`
`Today’s sentence is a first step in bringing justice to Celestin and punishes those who enslaved this young girl for six years. Unfortunately, however, there is nothing we can do to restore the childhood that was stolen from her,` added U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Alexander Acosta.
