|
Michel Jalbert
This case
has been all over the news. It appears that Michel Jalbert has
a petty criminal record which prevented him from being a poster
child for pushing all the way for restitution after his illegal
confinement by those terrorist-hunting Americans. It's too bad.
This would have been a good case to take all the way. The plea
bargain should make us all a little nervous.
Held for 35
days for no reason
Judge accepts deal in
Quebec border case
By ALLISON DUNFIELD,
Globe and Mail Update with Canadian Press , Mar. 10, 2003
- A Quebec man jailed last
year for driving into the United States to buy gasoline - with
a shotgun in his trunk - has pleaded guilty to charges in a U.S.
court Monday to avoid more jail time.
Earlier this month, lawyers
for Michel Jalbert struck a plea bargain with prosecutors that
would allow Mr. Jalbert to plead guilty to one charge of being
an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and to be sentenced
to time already served.
The charge carries with it
a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Under the terms of
the deal, other charges faced by Mr. Jalbert would be dropped.
Mr. Jalbert was nabbed by U.S.
border guards as he was heading to a family hunting trip and
had his shotgun in his truck.
The 33-year-old forestry worker
spent 35 days in jail last fall after he bought gas at a border
station at the edge of his hometown of Pohénégamook,
Que. He and his wife, Chantale Chouinard, have fretted over the
prospect of a trial and years in jail.
On Monday morning, Judge George
Singal of the U.S. District Court in Bangor, Me., accepted a
plea bargain and sentenced Mr. Jalbert to 35 days in jail - time
he had already served. Mr. Jalbert was told he was free to return
home.
However, Mr. Jalbert may now
be barred from entering the United States for life. His lawyer,
Jon Haddow, said the judge's sentence means that his client is
now considered a felon in the United States.
He told reporters this will
likely mean his client faces a lifetime ban from entering the
United States.
The plea-bargain ends Mr. Jalbert's
strange clash with rough justice at the U.S. border.
Residents of Pohénégamook
have filled up their gas tanks for years at a station about 15
metres inside U.S. territory, often without reporting to U.S.
Customs.
However, Mr. Jalbert's lawyer
said his client was a victim of new, tighter security regulations
after Sept. 11.
On Monday, the judge said the
case should send a message to all citizens that the old days
of quick, cross-border trips are over.
"This may cause inconvenience
for people who live along the borders but it's simply unfortunate
that the citizens of this country and Canada must endure that
fact," Judge Singal said.
With reports from Campbell Clark© 2003 Bell Globemedia
Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Lawyers reach deal in
dispute over gas purchase
By CAMPBELL CLARK,
Globe and Mail, Mar. 1, 2003
Ottawa - Lawyers for the Quebecker
jailed last year for driving about 15 metres into U.S. territory
to buy gas have struck a plea-bargain with prosecutors, allowing
Michel Jalbert to avoid more jail time by pleading guilty.
The news was a relief to Mr.
Jalbert, who languished in jail for 35 days last fall after he
bought gas at a border station at the edge of his hometown of
Pohénégamook, Que. He and his wife, Chantale Chouinard,
have fretted over the prospect of a trial and years in jail while
they awaited their second daughter, due yesterday.
Mr. Jalbert will appear in
U.S. District Court on March 10, where a federal judge is expected
to accept the plea agreement. He is then expected to be deported
to Canada - and may never be allowed back into the United States.
"I'm really happy that
they'll leave me alone," Mr. Jalbert said in a telephone
interview. "Until it's all over, I'm not sure, but it should
go all right."
The plea-bargain ends Mr. Jalbert's
strange clash with rough justice at the U.S. border.
The edge of Pohénégamook
is cut off by the border with Maine, although the four French-speaking
locals who live on the U.S. side must go into Canada to do almost
anything, including walking to the nearest street.
Residents of Pohénégamook
have filled up their gas tanks for years at a station about 15
metres inside U.S. territory, often without reporting to U.S.
Customs.
The gas station is just beside
the Canadian customs post, and while its pumps are in the United
States, its driveway is in Canada and leads to a Canadian road.
The U.S. customs station is one kilometre out of the town, next
to a Canadian lumber mill; those who do report to U.S. Customs
first must drive back through Canadian territory before they
get to the gas station.
There is nothing behind the
gas station but the woods of northern Maine.
But on Oct. 11, hours after
the customs post had closed, a U.S. border patrol officer arrested
Mr. Jalbert as he filled up. When authorities discovered his
hunting rifle in his truck and a minor criminal record for breaking
windows when he was 19, he was suddenly facing three federal
felony charges in the United States.
"I was doing that for
15 years, and everyone did it, too, in the exact same way,"
Mr. Jalbert said yesterday, still expressing disbelief at his
arrest. "It doesn't take 35 days to discover I'm not a terrorist.
A fine, or something, okay, but prison is perhaps too much."
Still, according to Mr. Jalbert's
lawyer, Jon Haddow, U.S. federal prosecutors refused to plea-bargain
while he was jailed last fall until a federal magistrate granted
his release on bail. Even then, officials with the U.S. Immigration
and Naturalization Service would not grant his release; U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell indicated his officials intervened
on the day he was let go.
Mr. Haddow said federal prosecutors
were ready to deal now, as long as Mr. Jalbert would plead guilty
to the felony charge of being an illegal alien in possession
of a firearm. He said he could not say why they were more willing
now.
"It's hard to say if it
was the publicity, or the intervention of Colin Powell, or the
prospect of going to trial," Mr. Haddow said yesterday.
Paula Silsby, the U.S. Attorney
for Maine, said only that both sides were willing to "dispose"
of the case, and there was no political intervention. Even now,
she said, she sees no difference between Mr. Jalbert's case and
anyone else who enters the United States illegally.
Mr. Jalbert may never be able
to return to the United States, however, and for him that means
he must be careful where he walks at the edge of his hometown.
But he said, at the moment,
he doesn't have much desire to spend time in the United States.
© 2003 Bell Globemedia
Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
US judge's order sets
Canadian driver's trial
By Associated Press, 2/6/2003
BANGOR -- A federal judge has
denied a motion to dismiss charges against a Canadian man charged
with illegally entering the United States to buy gas in the northern
Maine outpost of Estcourt.
The ruling by US District Chief
Judge George Singal means Michel Jalbert, 32, will go to trial
for illegal entry, being an illegal alien in possession of a
firearm, and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
Singal's order was filed Tuesday.
The trial is scheduled to begin March 11.
Jalbert's arrest Oct. 11, 2002,
in the driveway of Ouelett's Gaz Bar, just inside the Maine border,
touched off a storm of international controversy that even drew
Secretary of State Colin Powell into the fray. But the furor
has done little to aid Jalbert, who spent 35 days in a Maine
jail before his release in November.
Jalbert's attorney sought to
have the charges dismissed, saying the US Customs Service excused
gas station customers from having to report to the customs office
about a half-mile away.
Scores of residents from Pohenegamook,
the neighboring Quebec town, visit the station each day because
the gas is cheaper than on the Canadian side of the border.
Jon Haddow, the Bangor lawyer
who represents Jalbert, accused the government of ''outrageous
conduct'' by granting permission to go to the gas station and
then arresting Jalbert for doing just that.
Singal ruled that he lacked
a factual record to address the ''outrageous conduct'' claim,
but left open Haddow's right to refile the motion at trial.
Jalbert faces a firearms charge
because he was carrying a shotgun in his vehicle at the time
of his arrest. He said he had the shotgun because he had hoped
to hunt some partridge that day.
The third charge stems from
Jalbert's 1990 conviction in Canada for breaking and entering
and possession of stolen goods.
©Copyright 2003 Globe
Newspaper Company.
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell