Appeals court agrees that convicted Haitian-American businessmen should get new trial
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Monday upheld a district court’s ruling that two Haitian-American businessmen convicted of conspiring to pay millions of dollars in bribes to Haitian government officials, including the aide to a prime minister, for an $84 million port in northwest Haiti, should get new trials.
Dr. Joseph Baptiste, a Maryland dentist and retired Haitian-American U.S. Army colonel, and Roger Richard Boncy, a former Haitian ambassador-at-large, were both found guilty in June 2019 of participating in the scheme. Though they each had their own lawyers, they were tried jointly. After the jury rendered its verdict, both cited Baptiste’s ineffective defense from his counsel and sought acquittals or at the very least a new trial each.
Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs agreed to a new trial. The U.S. government, which had claimed that both men solicited money from undercover agents and promised to funnel it to Haitian bureaucrats through Baptiste’s charity, appealed Burroughs’ decision and wanted the convictions to stand. Jurors had convicted both of men of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Travel Act. Baptiste was also convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering and an additional Travel Act violation, while Boncy was cleared of the two counts.
On Monday, the federal appeals court in Boston rejected the government’s argument and upheld Burroughs’ decision for new trials saying that “the better the lawyers at a trial are, provided they are evenly matched, the more likely is the trier of fact to find the truth.”
“While both sides here face the expense of retrial, ‘[t]he result will be a ...proceeding much more likely to render a verdict in which the legal system and the public can have confidence,” the ruling said.
In her ruling, Burroughs had said that Baptiste’s lawyer’s “lack of preparation impeded his ability to diligently defend” Baptiste, the founder and chairman of the National Organization for the Advancement of Haitians (NOAH) and a go-to person for the State Department on Haiti before his legal troubles. She also noted that during the trial, Baptiste’s lawyer called no witnesses or experts to defend him, and he only cross-examined two of the government’s six witnesses.
Baptiste’s lawyer instead, relied on Boncy’s defense counsel — Jed Dwyer — the court said, to conduct cross-examinations of witnesses, even though Dwyer’s trial strategy involved portraying Baptiste as the primary driver of the alleged conspiracy.
Prosecutors had accused both men of conspiring to bribe high-level Haitian officials in order to develop an $84 million port project in Mȏle St. Nicolas, in northwest Haiti. As evidence, the government presented recordings, including that of a meeting in a Boston-area hotel. Prosecutors said Boncy and Baptiste told undercover agents that, in order to secure Haitian government approval, they would funnel the bribes to Haitian officials through Baptiste’s charity, NOAH.
Prior to his sentencing, Baptiste brought in a new attorney to review his case, Daniel Marx of Fick & Marx LLP.
This story was originally published August 9, 2021 at 6:46 PM.
