Haiti judge weighing Puello (Orellano) news developments in jailed Baptist case - seeks to tie trafficker with Silsby pre-arrest....

More media stories today confirmed what we learned this weekend about the real identity and history of Jorge Anibal Torres Puello, a Dominican resident -- also known as Jorge Torres Orellana, a man wanted by Interpol for trafficking in El Salvador and other illegal activities in the US. (In Santo Domingo Puello is also known as Jorge Torres, Yoram Torres and Jorge Migdal).

An AP reporter today got hold of Puello - following on CNN's conversation yesterday with Puello. He denied all the accusations against him, but admitted he's the man Interpol is seeking. (See story further below).

What's amazing about all this is the chutzpah of this 32-year old fugitive, who also appears to be something of a mama's boy: he refuses calls from the media, but can't refuse a call from mother, who then puts reporters on to talk with her on-the-lam son..... And while he chats with the global press, he eludes the Dominican police and US Marshals Service reps who have come knocking on the door of his relatives in the Dominican Republic, arrest warrants in hand.

Puello claims he's fled the DR, but his mother seems to suggest her fugitive son is still on the island (see AP story below). Clearly, she knows how to reach him.

As I keep saying, What a story. It would be entertaining if the crime under discussion wasn't the very ugly one of child trafficking and sexual slavery (see earlier blogs about Puello's (Orellana's) trafficking history in El Salvador). And that it was impacting on a Haitian judge's decision in the case of a Baptist missionary group jailed under suspicion of trafficking.

Haiti's actions - Seeking Evidence of Prior History with Silsby group

In Haiti, Bernard Saint-Vil, the investigating judge overseeing the case of the jailed Baptist group, led by Laura Silsby, has decided to delay a ruling in order to deepen his investigation into any links between Puello and the Baptists. He has a few days to do this - by Wednesday or Thursday, it appears, when he is due to issue a ruling. Defense lawyers were hoping for a group release last Friday, when the news about Puello's real identity emerged - and put a wrench into that plan.

Judge Saint-Vil is now urgently seeking information about whether Silsby knew Puello before her arrest. Both Puello and Silsby deny that.

But it's also true that both of them have told lies or made inconsistent statements, repeatedly, that have later been publicly revealed.

And their families, who hired the Dominican, also have been caught, well, being less than candid to reporters, then found themselves confronted with those statements when other evidence was presented.

Less than full truths....

Silsby: Silsby has maintained her innocence about knowing she needed documents to pick up Haitian children and take them out of the country. She had been told that repeatedly before her entry to Haiti, and then again AFTER she picked up an initial group of 40 kids, and was caught by a Haitian policeman and ordered to release the children. She was warned to stop by at least three orphanage directors in Haiti who refused to turn their children over to her -- and still she pursued her goal, which resulted in picking up 33 children before her arrest.

As I've reported earlier, I personally met and talked to Silby at length in the Dominican Republic about her plans, on the eve of her entry into Haiti. She told me (and others) that she had no plan to have the children adopted but would keep them in the Dominican Republic, which is what distinguished her group from other adoption agencies.
But her actual Haiti Rescue trip plan, published online and available for all to see, revealed her affiliation with a New Life International Adoption Foundation, and mentioned the plan to put them up for adoption at some point. There are other statements she's made that haven't been true, so her record on that score is questionable.

For the record, Silsby says she never met Puello until he turned up at the jail. (Let's remember that, for future reference).

Puello: Puello has yet to say much that's true, either. He isn't a lawyer, as he claimed. He's not born Jewish - though he's a self-professed convert - and he's self-declared as the head of the Orthodox Sephardic community of the Dominican Republic. Meaning that Jewish leaders there claim he doesn't represent that branch of the Jewish community in the DR, and they know little about him.

(Their denials, however, also reflect a bit of falsehood: I'd suggest taking a look at a blog I cited last night, The Daily Bastardette, or a blog posting tonight from Failed Messiah that discusses how Dominican Jewish leaders have actually known about Puello for several years, but only now are taking pains to deny his affiliation with their community.)

For the record, Puello claims he contactd Silsby's relatives after he heard she was in jail. He said he offered the group free services, but later we learned, he extracted an advance payment of at least $10,000 and possibly $40,000 (a sum that was to be divided between the three person Haitian legal team) from relatives of the Baptist group for his go-between representation. So more lies.

The Baptists in Idaho: For the record, Silsby's relatives say they knew nothing of Puello prior to Jan 12, but that he contacted them via a mutual acquaintance and only after the Idaho group was arrested. They apparently hired Puello, sight unseen, after doing a 'google' search of his name. This was two days after the relatives declined to accept an offer of US lawyers to help their family members in Haiti. They claimed Puello offered free, pro-bono legal services, and that they hadn't bothered to check his legal record, aside from googling his name.

(One has to ask why they wouldn't check someone's record in such a critical case? Is it because Puello's reputation was known to some of them? That's a theory circulating on Dominican legal blogs. Some people speculate the Puello has probably helped Baptist groups in the DR before).

Yet these relatives also failed to tell the full truth when asked about Puello and their dealings with him. Days ago, the relatives told CNN they had not paid Puello any money. But yesterday we learned, via a receipt shown to CNN by Puello's mother and stepfather, that they had made advance payments of at least $10,000 and possibly $40,000. Why lie about that? Is is because, at that point, the news about Puello being a possible trafficker and not a legitimate lawyer was already leaking out and they were trying to distance themselves from that association?

Point is, untruths and omissions all around. Which is why Haitian Judge Saint-Vil can't rely on any of the parties to tell the truth in this matter, it seems.

How can he find out if Puello was helping Silsby before the arrest? Here are some suggestions:

1) There are two realtors -business partners - who worked with Silbsy for months in the Dominican Republic. They are staunchly backing up Silsby's reputation and it's clear they have financially benefited from working with her (got their commission from the hotel lease deal, the purchase of land, etc). These realtors (Chenvert and Hidalgo - see yesterday's blog) are from Sousa, where Jorge Puello has also been working as a realtor. It's a small enough community. The realtors know each other. They're likely to know if Puello was around. Of course, they're firmly in Silsby's camp. They aren't likely to want to say anything that implicates her or links her to a man now known to be a wanted trafficker. But someone in that Sousa real estate community is likely to know.

2) More directly, the New Life Children's Refuge was registered as a charity and the EIN number as well as bank account numbers were/are publicly listed in the fundraising appeals she put out to members of her Idaho missionary community. A FINANCIAL SEARCH by the prosecutor's office of transactions done to that account over the past nine months might yield some information about whether Puello was engaged (or not) in any business with Silsby before her arrest, and more importantly, received any money. IF SILSBY IS TELLING THE TRUTH, THEN SHE SHOULD WELCOME AN OPPORTUNITY TO CONFIRM HER STATEMENT in this way.

Similarly, tracking Puello's financial history - to see if he received any money from New Life or its sponsors, would also help fill in this picture.

While Silsby was in financial straits, she also still managed to raise enough money to pay some advance rent on the DR hotel, and buy property. Someone was helping her. They might have been dealing with Puello on her behalf.

Following the money - tracking those accounts - might provide some answers.

3) Pursue whoever in Dominican Republic helped Silby's group get a purported authorization letter that allegedly gave her permission to bring Haitian children into the Dominican Republic. (We know that letter was not an adequate document, but the person who might have signed the letter, or the source, is known to the Dominican Consul, and one assumes, the Haitian judge, but not to the media.

It's important to know who helped Silsby get that letter -- and if Puello was behind or linked to any of that.

Why do I think it's quite possible?

1) Because in a recent Miami Herald article, Puello's stepfather suggests that Puello wanted to help Silsby because she planned to bring the children back to a church in the Dominican Republic and he supported that goal. Yet if Puello only helped her after her arrest, his interest in such a plan would be moot. The stepfather implied that Puello had known about the plan and wanted to help her succeed.

Note to Judge Saint-Vil: maybe a further conversation with Puello's stepfather would clarify the timeframe for Puello's decision to help Silsby? (Or maybe the stepfather would choose to keep his mouth shut at this point, knowing this would possibly cause major new problems for the American group.)


2) Because of the personal risk Puello took to reach out to Laura Silsby. As I wrote last night, and others have also asked, Why would a fugitive risk exposure to intense global legal and media scrutiny by involving himself in a case in Haiti with people he didn't know, posing as a lawyer, which he isn't? Apart from remarkable chutzpah, to me it suggests some prior relationship, some reason to get involved. There's the money - Puello managed to convince the Baptists to send him that, sight unseen. So that's one motive. There's a possible religious connection: both demonstrate religous zeal. Puello's explanation - that he just felt moved to help Silsby - just falls flat. But there could also be history - some business deals... the real estate angle.

Silsby had someone - several someones -- helping her to navigate the red tape of establishing her orphange in the DR, and then trying to quickly find and move Haitian children across the border without papers. Who was that? We know she was already dealing with the Catholic bishop to get her ex-hotel-cum-orphanage deal. Who else helped her? These individuals might also be able to shed light on Puello. But again: those helping Silsby will NOT want to say anything that might hurt her, especially if they truly believe in her general good, if misguided, intentions regarding Haiti's displaced children.

It's important to recognize the Laura Silsby was working on setting up her DR orphanage for nine months before the Haiti debacle. The Haiti piece of the pie was planned, but for later. The earthquake prompted her to move her plans up. But she had been actively working with Dominican friends of her church - members of her faith community who are Dominican -- and had help.

IDAHO LINKS: She also had the backing of Clint Henry, Silsby's pastor at the Central Valley Baptist Church. He and their church knew what she was doing and were fully supportive of her mission on behalf of their church. It's feasible that Baptist church officials in the DR knew Puello or had prior history and reached out to him related to the Silsby project. Whether any of them knew his prior history as an El Salvador trafficker is another question altogether.

Every new day has been full of revealing details in this saga. I expect tomorrow will be no different. Stay tuned.

And have a look at the AP story, below. So far, AP (esp reporter Frank Bajak), CNN (Karl Penhaul, also Anderson Cooper) the NYT (Marc Lacey and Ian Urbino), the local Miami Herald team, and the Wall Street Journal have all published investigative stories that advanced this story, while the Idaho Statesman team has provided more background on the Silsby group and her personal history.

The blogosphere is also breaking news on this story and provided history that fills out elements of the story. Here's a wiki link to a list of today's stories: http://www.wikio.com/themes/Jorge+Puello to catch up on some.

The Daily Bastardette remains good blog to regularly check for angles others haven't been looking at with as much depth such as the Jewish ID.

Let's hope the next days bring critical information, and closure on this case. Return the media spotlight to the big story: Haiti - and the the greater drama: Haiti. Haiti's many many people who are homeless, injured, hungry. The many, many children still without parents, shelter, food, a sense of security....

Now here's the AP story, just giving broad background for those of you who spent your Monday doing something else besides tracking a con man from Yonkers who sports a yamulke and has the whole world, and Interpol, overly interested in his many names and affairs....

p

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Feb 15, 10:12 PM EST


Adviser to Americans admits link to Salvador case

By BEN FOX
Associated Press Writer


SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) -- The man who served as legal adviser to 10 American missionaries jailed in Haiti on charges of child kidnapping acknowledged Monday that he is the suspect wanted in El Salvador on human smuggling accusations.

In a call from an unknown location, Jorge Puello told The Associated Press he was innocent of the accusations and that he and his Salvadoran wife had taken in young women from the Caribbean and Central America who had been abandoned by smugglers.

Salvadoran authorities want to prosecute Puello and his jailed wife for allegedly luring women and girls into prostitution with bogus offers of modeling jobs.

"I'm planning to go to El Salvador to tackle this problem," Puello said in a phone call arranged by his mother at his childhood home in the Dominican Republic. "I am not afraid to face the music."

Each new detail emerging about the past of the 32-year-old seems to add to the embarrassment and discomfort of the American missionaries that Puello volunteered to help, and who are still awaiting release from a Port-au-Prince jail.

On Monday, a Haitian prosecutor said a power outage delayed his printing of a recommendation to release the 10 Americans charged with child kidnapping. Because Tuesday is a national holiday, he doesn't expect the judge to issue a decision until Wednesday morning.

The detention of the Americans comes amid concerns about a possible increase in human trafficking out of Haiti following the Jan. 12 earthquake. Guards at the frontier between Haiti and the Dominican Republic rescued 22 children, between 7 and 16 years old, over the past two days from smugglers, said Francisco Gil Ramirez, chief of the Dominican Special Border Security Corps. Six suspected traffickers, all Haitian, were taken into custody, he said.

In the phone call with the AP, Puello said he had fled the Dominican Republic to avoid arrest.

The Dominican National Police, working with Interpol, said it had conducted several raids and interviews Monday in an attempt to locate Puello and detain him on the Salvadoran warrant.

U.S. federal agents also went to his mother's house over the weekend. Dave Oney, a Marshals Service spokesman in Washington, said authorities are trying to determine if Puello is a man with a similar name and physical description wanted for a 2002 parole violation.

Puello's statement that he had left the Dominican Republic was immediately cast in doubt by his mother, Ana Rita Puello, who refused to vouch for her son's whereabouts.

Informed that Puello said he had left the country, she looked surprised. Ask if she believed he fled, she shook her head and smiled.

"I don't want to answer," she said.

Puello's recent behavior has only stoked doubts about his identity and other aspects of his life.

He falsely portrayed himself as a lawyer in the Dominican Republic. He wrongly claimed to be the leader of the country's Sephardic Jewish community. And he initially told reporters he had never been to El Salvador, but now says he has deep connections to the Central American country, including five children there.

Arrest warrants identify him as Jorge Anibal Torres Puello. Around Santo Domingo he was also known as Jorge Torres, Yoram Torres and Jorge Migdal.

The Americans in Haiti, detained for allegedly trying to take 33 children out of the country without proper documents after the earthquake, knew him as Jorge Puello.

Puello says his role in the case is as a misunderstood do-gooder who volunteered to help the detained Americans after reading about their case on the Internet.

"If you see somebody dying and you can help you can't just not help because you have a past," he said. "I have been helping people since I was a kid."

Born in Yonkers, New York, Puello spent his early childhood years in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico after his parents divorced, according to his mother, a 49-year-old activist with a small political party and the operator of a preschool at the family home.

Later, Ana Puello married Franco Cerminara, a businessman from Italy, and they moved to South Florida.

"That's when Jorge began to go wrong," said Cerminara, now retired.

The couple showed a photo of a young Jorge in a starched white military academy uniform in the Dominican Republic. But as a 15-year-old in Miami, they said, he began dating a stripper, who was a single mother and 10 years older than him. He soon left home for Philadelphia, where Cerminara said he was convicted of bank fraud and later moved to Puerto Rico to work as a hotel receptionist.

At some point, he apparently served in the U.S. military. A family photo shows him in fatigues standing next to two Army trucks. Puello said he served in the Army from 1996-2000 but gave no further details.

About four years ago, he emerged in Santo Domingo saying he wanted to establish a Sephardic Jewish community. Cerminara and Ana Puello said everyone in their family is Catholic and that Jorge Puello's converted on his own. "He is Jewish by conviction," she said. "He practices the religion and believes it in his heart."

The Dominican Republic is home to about 50 Jewish families, a tightly knit and low-key community that includes Sephardim and Ashkenazim, and some had doubts about the new arrival, said Isaac Lalo, secretary of the Centro Israelita de Republica Dominicana, the main synagogue.

Jorge Puello began identifying himself as the "newly elected president of the Jewish Communities of Dominican Republic" in a Jewish newsletter and elsewhere even though he was never elected to any such role and had no congregation.

"This guy has nothing to do with our community," Lalo said. "Sephardic Jews don't just set up a community out of the blue."

Puello at some point moved to El Salvador with his Salvadoran wife, Ana Josefa Galvarina, who is jailed in El Salvador. He said that he ran a business installing propane gas in cars.

He said in the interview that he and his wife took in young women abandoned by smugglers, with the cooperation of the immigration ministry, but that the migrants tired of the house rules and he dropped them off at a bus station with money for a ticket home.

He said they told police they had been trafficked by Puello to punish him. "They made it all up," Puello said of his accusers. He says he's eager to go back and fight the charges and join his children, now staying with their grandmother.

It was his Salvadoran lawyer, he said, who told him to leave the country and avoid arrest. "He said not to get in trouble right now, not to get arrested until he can fix everything."

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Associated Press writers Dionisio Soldevila in Santo Domingo and Mike Melia in San Juan, Puerto Rico contributed to this report.