CONCORD, New Hampshire (AP):
A UNITED States federal jury on Friday convicted two people of forcing Jamaican labourers to work in their tree-cutting business.
Timothy Bradley, 43, and Kathleen O'Dell, 48, were convicted of confiscating the workers' passports and visas, lying to them and reneging on promises about pay and housing.
"We think the verdicts ... are most just and supported by the evidence," prosecutor Mark Zuckerman said. "I would certainly hope that this case would serve to deter anyone else who would be inclined to bring people to this country and subject them to forced labour." The two are expected to be sentenced December 4.
Bradley's lawyer, Stephen Jeffco, said he was disappointed with the verdict.
Four workers identified only as David H., Andrew F., Garth C. and Livingston W., testified during the trial, which began August 20.
A total of five men were brought in from Jamaica to work for Bradley Tree Service over two years. They drove trucks for the business, fed tree limbs into a chipper and stacked logs into a truck, they said. One of the men fled after his first week and returned to Jamaica.
The workers testified that O'Dell demanded they hand over their passports, and said they heard threats against the man who had left. Defence lawyers said the men were not accustomed to hard physical labour and may have mistaken talk about top wages in the tree business with the US$8 an hour the Jamaicans were promised and paid.
The couple's lawyers portrayed the Jamaicans as inexperienced and disgruntled workers who did not understand why taxes had to be taken from their paychecks, refused to wear hard hats and did not take responsibility for their own living quarters or medical care.
But prosecutors countered that the Jamaicans, who had trouble reading and writing, were chosen because they were vulnerable. They said the couple kept the workers in a shack and camper on Bradley's property, required them to get approval to come and go and reprimanded them like children.
Zuckerman said the case is an example of the foreign worker visa system being grossly abused.
"These people were brought here legally... but certainly with the intent to subject them to forced labour," he said.
