Sports agent imprisoned for smuggling Cuban players freed to help mom amid coronavirus threat

Imprisoned sports agent Bart Hernandez, convicted of smuggling ballplayers from Cuba, gained his freedom Friday after a Miami federal judge ruled he should be released for “compassionate” reasons because he is the only family member who can take care of his ailing mother who lives in New York, the hot spot of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak.

Citing “extraordinary and compelling reasons,” U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams cut Hernandez’s almost four-year sentence at a federal prison in North Carolina short by about a year. He will remain in quarantine for 14 days until he is transferred to his elderly mother’s home in Queens.

“Because of the coronavirus pandemic, [Hernandez] is currently the only potential caregiver for his 84-year-old mother, Eloina Hernandez, who suffers from degenerative ocular disease and cancer that renders her functionally blind,” Williams wrote in a three-page order issued Friday. She also noted Hernandez’s mother requires eye injections every six weeks, and that she is in remission from a recent bout of cancer.

In early March, as the pandemic began to escalate, Hernandez’s defense attorneys, Jeffrey Marcus and Daniel Rashbaum, sought their client’s release under the First Step Act that allows a judge to grant the “compassionate release” of a defendant under certain circumstances. Federal prosecutor H. Ron Davidson opposed releasing Hernandez, who began his prison sentence in late 2017.

But Williams sided with Hernandez’s lawyers, swayed by their argument that his mother now depended on him amid the coronavirus outbreak because her brother was incapacitated and could no longer provide help. Under the judge’s order, Williams allowed Hernandez to end his sentence and remain under “home confinement subject to voice monitoring” until April 2021.

“While under home confinement, [Hernandez] is permitted to leave Eloina Hernandez’s home for grocery shopping, pharmacy pickups, attending medical appointments, and other essential care-taking tasks,” the judge wrote. “Should the defendant’s care-taking responsibilities change, [he] shall be required to perform community service as directed” by the federal probation office and the judge.

In March 2017, Hernandez, a former Major League Baseball agent who had lived in Weston, and trainer Julio Estrada, a former catcher on Cuba’s national team and ex-coach at Coral Park High, were found guilty of smuggling Cuban baseball players into the United States to capitalize on their multimillion-dollar major league contracts.

Hernandez was convicted of conspiring with Estrada and others to deceive the U.S. government into granting visas and other documents to two dozen Cuban ballplayers – including former Miami Marlins shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria – so they could sign with Major League Baseball teams. The conspiracy offense carried up to five years in prison.

Hernandez was additionally convicted of bringing Leonys Martin – a Chicago Cubs outfielder who signed with Texas for $15 million in 2011 – into the U.S. after he was smuggled from Cuba to Mexico.

Estrada was found guilty of conspiracy and three additional counts of bringing Jose Abreu, Omar Luis and Dalier Hinojosa into the U.S. illegally. Abreu, a first baseman, signed a $68-million deal with the Chicago White Sox in 2013. Estrada was sentenced to just over five years in prison.

Prosecutors portrayed Hernandez and Estrada as mastermind and engineer behind “The Plan,” in which Cuban ballplayers moved through an underground pipeline via third-country way stations onward across the U.S. border.

Hernandez and Estrada represented dozens of ballplayers who were smuggled into Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, where they collaborated with others to obtain falsified papers to establish residency and work out in training camps. Once that was set up, the agent and trainer used that information to obtain a license from the Treasury Department to negotiate with top Major League Baseball bidders. When done transparently, the practice was perfectly lawful.

But Hernandez and Estrada paid off boat captains and falsified documents to bring players into the U.S. illegally from Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The two men made millions by cornering the defector market for a time. Estrada charged exorbitant fees, up to 30 percent of a player’s contract. Hernandez charged his agency fee of five percent.

This story was originally published April 3, 2020 at 5:03 PM.