Miami, Florida, Schoolteacher and Ex-Husband Sentenced For Human Trafficking and...

Miami, Florida, Schoolteacher and Ex-Husband Sentenced For Human Trafficking
and Smuggling Charges

WASHINGTON, May 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A former Miami-area middle
school teacher, Maude Paulin, and her ex-husband, Saintfort Paulin, were
sentenced today in federal court for committing federal civil rights offenses
when they forced a young Haitian teenager to work as a domestic servant in
their home, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights
Division Grace Chung Becker and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of
Florida R. Alexander Acosta. U.S. Senior District Judge Jose A. Gonzalez
sentenced Maude Paulin to 87 months in prison followed by three years of
supervised release and ordered that she, jointly with her co-defendant, pay
$162,765 in restitution to the victim. Saintfort Paulin was sentenced to 18
months of probation, including six months in home confinement, and was ordered
to pay a $500 fine.

On March 4, 2008, a federal jury found Maude Paulin and her mother,
co-defendant Evelyn Theodore, guilty of conspiring to violate the victim's
civil rights and of forcing the victim to work for them. The jury also found
Maude Paulin, Theodore and Saintfort Paulin guilty of harboring an illegal
alien. A fourth defendant, Claire Telasco, was acquitted of the conspiracy and
forced labor charges. Due to an illness, Theodore's sentencing date has not
yet been determined.

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 the victim to work in their
home as a domestic servant. The victim 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 the victim to perform
this work through a combination of psychological coercion and physical force,
including striking the victim with their hands, fists and other objects and
threatening to have the victim jailed and sent to Haiti if she refused to
work. The victim was not paid for her work, nor was she provided formal or
informal schooling despite her young age. In June 2005, the victim 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 the victim 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 the victim 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," said U.S. Attorney Acosta.

Human trafficking prosecutions such as this one are a top priority of the
Department of Justice. In the last seven fiscal years, the Civil Rights
Division, in conjunction with the U.S. Attorneys' Offices, has increased by
nearly seven-fold the number of human trafficking cases filed in court as
compared to the previous seven fiscal years. In FY 2007, the Department
obtained a record number of convictions in human trafficking prosecutions.

This case was investigated by agents from the Miami Division of the FBI, the
Miami-Dade County Police Department and the Miami Field Office of U.S.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. It was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys
Edward Chung and Cyra O'Daniel from the Justice Department's Civil Rights
Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Tantillo from the U.S. Attorney's
Office for the Southern District of Florida.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs, +1-202-514-2007, TDD,
+1-202-514-1888