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Saturday, July 8, 2006
2 admit hiring illegal workers for N. Ky. jobs

By Paul A. Long
Post staff reporter

Federal authorities have obtained the first guilty pleas to significant felony charges in the multi-year investigation of the use of illegal immigrant workers in the Northern Kentucky home building industry.

Two men who pleaded guilty Friday admitted they hired and paid illegal immigrants in cash to work on job sites in Boone County for Robert Pratt, a key figure who authorities say links the illegal workers to Fischer Homes.

They have agreed to cooperate with the government's investigation, and will testify against others - including Pratt, if necessary.

In return, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bob McBride and the defendants agree the two will be sentenced under the federal sentencing guidelines, which in their cases - if all goes as expected - call for a sentence of about 12 to 18 months.

Alfredo Medina-Mejia, 35, and Leopoldo Medina, 27, both pleaded guilty to a single count of harboring illegal immigrants for commercial advantage. They said they knew the workers were in the United States illegally.

In their plea agreements, worked out with McBride, both men admitted they are Mexican citizens who also are in the United States illegally.

Pratt paid the two men by check, and they in turn cashed and paid the workers, both men said in separate plea agreements with the government.

U.S. District Judge David Bunning will sentence the men on Nov. 17. Until then, they remain free on bond.

"That in or about (the year) 2000," the plea agreement for both men states, "the defendant agreed to and did work for Robert Pratt as a construction crew chief framing apartments, condominiums and houses in Northern Kentucky and Southwestern Ohio. The defendant was employed by Robert Pratt, but paid through Pratt's nominee companies through ... May 9, 2006."

On that date, federal agents from Customs and Immigrations Enforcement swooped through Fischer Homes job sites in Boone County, making dozens of arrests, including four supervisors and some 75 illegal workers from Mexico and several Central American countries.

Although Fischer Homes has been mentioned prominently in the investigation and the cases, only the four supervisors from the company have been charged. All still work for the company, which has stood behind them and adamantly denied any wrongdoing.

The majority of the people arrested were charged with being in the United States illegally. Most of them - at last count, 79, with six more to go - have pleaded guilty, sentenced to time served, and subjected to deportation.

Some remain in either the Boone County or Grant County jails as material witnesses in the larger cases against Pratt and the four Fischer supervisors.

The supervisors - Tim Copsy, William Allison, Bill Ring and Doug Witt - are charged with harboring illegal workers by providing them jobs. Pratt, a contractor from Tennessee who often worked with Fischer Homes, faces 10 charges of money laundering, along with charges of conspiracy and harboring illegal aliens. He faces up to 20 years in prison. The four supervisors face up to 10 years if convicted.

Pratt and the companies he and his family ran were subcontractors on Fischer job sites, court documents state. Investigators said Pratt and his family's companies worked closely with the four supervisors of Fischer Homes and shared decision-making and work supervision.

In addition to Pratt, several of his family members are charged with being part of the conspiracy - his son and daughter, Howard Pratt and Jacqueline Pratt, and his sister, Josefino Moreno. Court documents say Robert Pratt ran Progressive Builders and Quality Construction; Josefino Moreno ran HPF Inc., and Jacqueline Pratt ran HJP Construction.

Pratt is free on bond, under house arrest in Franklin, Tenn., about 20 miles south of Nashville. His other family members also are free on bond.

Fischer Homes, one of the largest home-building companies in Northern Kentucky, has denied it knowingly hired any illegal workers and has said it has little control over how its subcontractors run their businesses.

It has taken out full-page advertisements in local newspapers proclaiming its innocence and its strict adherence to immigration laws.

It said it has 449 employees - 447 of whom are citizens of the United States, and two who have permanent residency status.

The people hired by contractors or subcontractors are not employees of Fischer Homes, the company say, and as such, it cannot question their immigrant status.