Eleven to 15 Honduran women who were deported last year following the raid on two local bars were ordered last week to return to the United States by District Judge Joel Pisano to possibly testify in a trial.
Piano ruled on June 13 not to dismiss the federal charges against Luisa Medrano, the alleged leader of a human trafficking ring from Honduras to the United States.
Medrano’s attorney, Henry Mazurek, had requested that the case be dismissed because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents knowingly deported 11 witnesses who could provide essential information to Medrano’s defense.
According to Mazurek, if the government was shown to have acted in bad faith in deporting the witnesses before Medrano had the opportunity to request their testimony, the judge would have to dismiss the case.
However, after second hearing on June 14 where agents were called to testify, Pisano said he believed that the agents and prosecutors did not intentionally infringe on Medrano’s right to a fair trial.
“There is no question that had the agents focused on their obligations to preserve evidence in the case, it might have been advisable for them to invoke the material witness statute and we wouldn’t be in the situation that we are today,” Pisano told newspapers last week.
Medrano, who is currently out on bail pending her September trial date, and at least nine other co-conspirators, face 31 federal charges including forced labor and human trafficking. At least four of the defendants have since pleaded guilty.
Mazurek says he believes that the women, when interviewed, had no evidence against Medrano, and that’s why they were sent back.
Error in judgment or intentional?
Last July, ICE agents raided Medrano’s El Paisano Bar and Nightclub on 22nd Street and El Puerto de la Union II on Bergenline Avenue in Union City, plus a third bar in Guttenberg. They also raided two Union City apartments where they said at least 10 undocumented young women were living, some as young as 14 years old.
There were allegations that the women were forced to entertain male customers while working at the bars, and further allegations of physical and sexual abuse, including reports of forced abortions by ingesting pills.
The women were also allegedly kept under constant threats of deportation or harm to their families in Honduras. Some of these women were taken into ICE custody, and reportedly corroborated the story that they had been lured to the country and forced to work at the bars to pay off smuggling debts of up to $20,000.
They were allowed to remain in the country on special visas and were subpoenaed as witnesses for the prosecution.
However, Mazurek said that at least eight other women picked up from the raids had told agents that they were not smuggled into the country nor were they being forcibly made to work at the bars. These were among the women that were deported back to Honduras.
No pressure
After conducting his own interviews with some of the women in Honduras, Mazurek stated last month that five of the deportees could testify that Medrano never pressured them into any forced labor and that ICE agents urged them to describe themselves as victims or be deported.
“The judge has ordered the government to make all efforts to have these witnesses available, and to either parole them back to the country or have depositions made from the women,” said Mazurek. “[They would have to return] reasonably with time to prepare for trial. Jury selection begins on September 12 and the trial will be held in Trenton.”
However, there was no resolution made as to what would happen if the prosecution could not locate the witnesses.
“Based on the judge’s ruling, the trial cannot be held if they can’t find the witnesses, and I believe the judge would have to reconsider the motion to dismiss the indictment,” said Mazurek. “If [the prosecution] wants to proceed to trial, I’m sure they will locate these women. We look forward to these women being made available, because this will absolutely vindicate Luisa Medrano.”
The trial is set to begin on Sept. 18.