YOU DECIDE

This is Alex Celian’s story. Alex has been an inmate at Morgan Street Federal Jail for over four months. Alex, who is 24 years old, came to the United States from Haiti in 1992. According to Alex, he came to the United States from Haiti when he was 16 years old to study English. His uncle, who owned an electrical business, helped Alex after he arrived in the United States. Alex stayed in the United States and went to work for his uncle in the electrical trade. As he learned the business, he took additional part time work with Powers Electrical Contractors to earn extra income in an effort to better himself. He was trying to put aside money for college. In June, 2000, Alex and his uncle were arrested for allegedly selling drugs. Alex was brought to Morgan Street Federal Jail and the Federal Court appointed Alex an attorney, James S. Garbett, of Tampa, Florida.

Attorney Garbett saw Alex only once prior to Alex meeting with this writer. Mr. Garbett told Alex he was guilty of selling drugs and that the only way he could get a break on his sentence was to work with the federal agents in finding other people selling or distributing illicit drugs. Alex told his attorney he never sold drugs, never used drugs, and didn’t know anyone that did, including his uncle. Alex told his attorney if his uncle was selling drugs, he knew nothing about it. Mr. Garbett told Alex he didn’t believe him and he would be convicted of selling drugs, spend years in jail, then be sent back to Haiti if he continued to refuse to help federal agents catch alleged drug peddlers.

Alex decided to make a motion with the Federal Court, i.e., Judge Lazzara, to remove his court appointed attorney, Mr. Garbett, and replace him with a “competent court appointed attorney” just before Alex’s trial. Federal Court Judge Richard Lazzara refused, as Attorney Garbett promised he would do his best to defend Alex during his trial. Alex now had no choice but to go on with the trial with what Alex considered an incompetent attorney who believed Alex was guilty.

Although Alex has learned English, and can understand most of it, he still has difficulty speaking English without an accent which is difficult for most people to comprehend. He told his lawyer, Mr. Garbett, that he wanted his uncle to testify and himself to testify in his own behalf at his trial. Alex said that the Government had absolutely no evidence that Alex ever sold any drugs or used any drugs, only accusations and unsubstantiated testimony by the Government. His uncle testified that Alex knew nothing about any drugs and there was no conspiracy between himself and Alex to sell or distribute illicit drugs. Alex took the stand and said essentially the same and that he never had anything to do with drugs. With no other testimony put forth by Alex’s alleged competent defense attorney, the jury came back as hung, 8 jurors voted not guilty while 4 believed the accusations by the Government agents who said he was guilty. One pertinent question here is, did the federal court appointed attorney appointed by Judge Lazzara do his job in defending Mr. Alex Celian?

Most every attorney this writer has spoken with about the trial said that Attorney James Garbett, in the case of Alex Celian, was a miserable excuse for a federal court appointed attorney. However, they went on to say miserable excuses for federal criminal court appointed attorneys by the Federal Judges is par for the course. After all, everyone is interested in convictions, not acquittals or even “justice” in many cases. All agreed that Attorney Garbett should have brought in witnesses that knew Alex from B&L Electric, where he learned the electrical trade, to testify that they never saw Alex sell or use drugs, and that he was a dedicated, dependable and conscientious worker. Attorney Garbett should have done the exact same thing with Powers Electrical Contractors in Tampa, Florida and Trade Force, a company similar to Manpower that finds people for daily full or part time work, which is where Alex would go to find extra part time work. Attorney Garbett should have, and could have, demanded that the Confidential Informant (CI) appear for testimony who accused Alex in the first place. He should have demanded fingerprints on the bag the CI said Alex allegedly handled. Most agreed that the reason the Government never called the CI to testify or provide fingerprint examples as required by law was because Alex never handled any bag of drugs. Alex’s fingerprints must not have been on the alleged bag of drugs involved. Most likely, only the CI’s fingerprints were on the bag of alleged drugs which was provided by the CI. It appears there is much more to this case of entrapment than meets the eye!

According to Mr. Celian, Mr. Garbett never received any fingerprint results even though Alex asked Mr. Garbett to acquire them, and to reveal the test results to him a number of times. Mr. Garbett told Alex the prosecutor told him they would not provide him with the fingerprint tests. In that case, Mr. Garbett should have filed a motion to dismiss for the prosecutor refusing to provide evidence in Mr. Celian’s behalf. Even with all the alleged defense blunders by Mr. Garbett, the jury was hung at 8 to 4 in Mr. Celian’s favor. After the trial was over, the U.S. Prosecutor stated he was going to try Mr. Celian again. Mr. Celian asked his attorney to secure a copy of the transcript of the trial to review for his defenses and for possible impeachment of expert witnesses in the next trial. Mr. Garbett refused, saying it cost too much money.

The Federal Government is paying for the transcript, not Mr. Garbett or Mr. Celian, and most assuredly a transcript of the first trial would be needed for review as a defense vehicle in Mr. Celian’s second trial. It almost appears that there may be some sort of sinister plan going on in the Tampa Bay area within the federal judicial system. Why would a federal court appointed attorney tell his client that supplying a transcript of his trial would be too costly? Are the Federal Courts paying flat rates for these attorneys? The more they save the court, the more money the attorneys receive? Is that what is going on here? Are defenses now for sale? Is incarceration for sale? Is justice for sale?

At this point in mid-December, 2000, Mr. Celian has filed another motion to remove Mr. Garbett from representing him. Judge Lazzara refused him again. Mr. Celian also filed a motion for a copy of the trial transcript, which Judge Lazzara has not ruled on as of this date. Alex has been advised his next court date for trial is set for January 25, 2001. Mr. Celian has been sitting in Morgan Street Federal Jail, denied bond, for over 6 months. Morgan Street Federal Jail is no picnic and is about 10 times more harsh than any federal prison regarding the treatment of prisoners. What happened to the presumption of innocence, has that been abolished?!!

Has Mr. Alex Celian been provided justice or injustice by our Federal Government?

Update: The next time I saw Alex Celian was at Coleman Low Federal Prison, 2001. Corrupt Federal Judge Lazzara refused all of Mr. Celian’s requests and rigged the trial to find Alex guilty.

No justice – no constitution and total corruption by Federal Judge Lazzara, and the U.S. Government’s Justice system in Tampa, Florida.

More examples of corruption by the Feds which came from Kimball’s interviews and reviewing court records