The Arapahoe District Attorney’s Office has come under fire once again for putting on blinders in an effort to prosecute an Ethopian woman, Ruth Tsehaye, for “trafficking.” Thanks to the outstanding work by attorneys Dan Recht and David Beller and the defense team, Ms. Tsehaye was acquitted by an Arapahoe County Jury.
In 1996, Ms. Tsehaye helped bring her distant cousin, Tsehai Hagos, a non-English-speaking woman to the U.S. Hagos shared a bedroom with Tsehaye’s mother while Tsehaye paid her expenses and urged her to get a job. Hagos lived in the house for about eleven years after which she moved in with other relatives. These relatives and Hagos then proceded to shake down Ms. Tsehaye, claiming that she had enslaved Hagos in their house and trying to extort back wages.
It was immediately clear that Hago’s story about enslavement was full of gaping holes and contradicted by video tapes, photographs, and independant eyewitnesses all of which showed a person (Hago) who was neither enslaved nor hidden away from the rest of society.
Instead of trying to resolve this case outside of trial, the Araphoe DA’s Office opted to try the case, claiming that Tsehaye was involved in “human trafficking,” insensitive to the fact that immigrants commonly assist in bringing family members from other coutries to the U.S.
Jurors who acquitted Ms. Tsehaye saw right through the “victim’s” claims and recognized Hagos’ motivation to make up claims “so she could stay in the country.”
“In the DA’s office’s agenda to prosecute so overzealously, it seems that the facts of a case aren’t really an objective,” says Chris Cashbaugh, foreman of the jury that cleared Ruth Tsehaye at trial.
Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/greene/ci_14527067#ixzz0hvElU23H
Filed under: Arapahoe County Cases, Immigration, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Uncategorized Tagged: | Prosecutorial Misconduct
complicated case