Calimlims ask court to reverse conviction
April 29, 2008 -- Got something to say?
Print This Post
By Joseph G. LariosaCHICAGO, Illinois - Dr. Elnora M. Calimlim and her husband, Dr. Jefferson N. Calimlim, had asked the court of appeals in Chicago, Illinois that they be released from federal prisons because “the forced labor statute” that was the basis of their conviction was “unconstitutionally vague and overbroad.”
In briefs filed on their behalf by their lawyer, Dean A. Strang, before the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit based in Chicago, the Calimlims asked the court “to reverse their judgments of conviction on Counts 1 and 2, vacate the restitution order accordingly, vacate their convictions on Counts 3 and 4″ and “order their immediate release on personal recognizance and the other non-monetary conditions of release that the district court set.”
A jury in Milwaukee, Wisconsin convicted the Calimlims, (Elnora, 62, and Jefferson, 63), both Filipino immigrants, of “conspiracy to commit forced labor in violation of 18 U.S.C. 371 and 18 U.S.C. 1589, and two separate immigration counts for harboring an illegal alien for the purpose of private financial gain.”
Judge Rudolph T. Randa of the U.S. District Court of Eastern Wisconsin in Milwaukee sentenced the couple last Nov. 16, 2006 to concurrent 48 months (four years) imprisonment with a supervised release for three years and a still undetermined amount of restitution for harboring an illegal immigrant as a maid in their eastern Wisconsin home for 19 years.
The couple is believed to be the first in the nation to be charged with “forced labor conviction not involving the use of violence.” Randa also ordered the couple to pay restitution to their maid, Irma Martinez, in the amount of $916,635 equivalent to “imputed wages due.”
Also convicted was the couple’s son, Jeff, 32, who was charged “only of harboring an alien (and not for financial gain; a lesser included offense under Count 3) but did not appeal.”
For its part, the government lawyers led by Wan J. Kim, U.S. Assistant Attorney General, and U.S. Assistant Attorneys Jessica Dunsay Silver and Sarah E. Harrington of the Department of Justice told the appeals court that it should affirm Randa’s order, explaining that the Calimlims “knowingly coerced Ms. Martinez to provide her labor for 19 years by
intentionally making her believe that, if she left their employ, she would face arrest, imprisonment, and deportation, as well as the resulting loss of vital financial support for her impoverished family (in the Philippines).”
The government added that contrary to the claim of defendants that the terms “serious harm” and “abuse of law or legal process” as used in 18 U.S.C. 1589? as ?unconstitutionally overbroad and vague is without merit.?
It said that statute “does not prohibit any activity protected by the First Amendment; rather, it prohibits intentionally coercing another person to provide her labor.” Because the term of the statute “as understood by an ordinary citizen, prohibits the Calimlims’ actions,” it means that the “statute is neither vague nor overbroad.”
The government told the appeals court that “in addition to affirming defendants’ convictions, this Court should vacate their sentences and remand for resentencing because the district court did not calculate the advisory guideline range correctly and imposed an unreasonably low sentence.”
It argued that the district court “incorrectly refused to enhance the Defendants” sentences because they committed other felonies in the course of committing the offense of forced labor; did not apply the vulnerable victim enhancement in this case, saying there was no “double counting” because victim’s vulnerability was not an element of the offense and was not otherwise accounted for in the guidelines calculations;
“Because they used their minor children in the commission of their crimes; and the district court unreasonably reduced the defendants’Â offense level because the court found that they (Calimlims) led blameless lives, not counting this incident.”
Ms. Martinez, a native of Malbong, Gianza, Camarines Sur in the Philippines , was 18 years old when she came to the United States on a business visa to accompany Elnora’s father for his medical treatment.
She would later work as domestic help of the Calimlims for more than 18Â years on an expired visa.
Dr. Calimlim, whose parents are from Dagupan City in the Philippines, is doing prison time at Youngstown , Ohio’s Correctional Institute while Dr. Elnora Calimlim is imprisoned at Hazelton U.S. Penitentiary at Bruce Mills, West Virginia . They are expected to be released on Sept. 3, 2010.
A three-judge panel led by Circuit Judge Diane Pamela Wood is expected to hand down its ruling on the appeal in a few months. The other members of the panel are Circuit Judges Diane S. Sykes and John Daniel Tinder.
(lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...Comments
Got something to say?
Recent Post
- ABC interviews Pinoy talents
- Heirs of other air crash victims seek payment
- Filipinos world’s more environment-conscious people
- Pope, Bush discuss immigration
- Philippine government to send medical team to China
- 3 branches of Philippine gov’t sign agreement of cooperation
- Philippines might have landslides and floods in coming days: weather bureau
- Scorched Earth Politics
- Abused women can get green cards
- Arroyo coming to DC?
- Cannes brings cheer to ailing Philippines film industry
- Typhoon Rammasun maintains strength toward northern Philippines
- Dengue cases in Philippines rise by 34 percent: government
- Missing Briton located in Philippines
- Another OFW seeks aid; Holgado dies
- Focus on Filipino American Organizations
- UN adopts RP report on ‘rights’
- Jamby left out of will, Collantes gets mansion
- Economics in Santa Banana
- The grand deception
