Thread: Court affidavit outlines second prostitution case involving Vermont farm workers

burlingtonfreepress.com
Written by Sam Hemingway
10:26 PM, Jan. 27, 2012

Two men are facing allegations they transported a woman from New York City to Vermont earlier this month to engage in prostitution with farm workers here.

Jose Lorenzo Cardona-Paguada and Rafael Posadas-Lara were ordered to remain in federal custody pending trial on charges of transporting for prostitution following an appearance Thursday before federal Magistrate John Conroy in Burlington.

The woman, Maribel Huerta-Mendez, was detained as a material witness in the case. All three have admitted to U.S. Border Patrol agents that they are illegal immigrants from Mexico or, in Cardona-Paguada’s case, from Honduras, according to court records.

According to an affidavit on file at U.S. District Court in Burlington, border patrol agents working on the case recovered two small, spiral-bound notebooks that purportedly contained the names, addresses and phone numbers of farms in Vermont and New York, along with a ledger of prostitution transactions.

The case is the second in the past year involving allegations that Hispanic women from New York City were brought to Vermont farms to engage in acts of prostitution with farm workers. Many Vermont dairy farms employ foreign workers, mostly from Mexico.

In the earlier case, two men were charged with bringing women to Vermont farms for prostitution purposes. One of the two, Alejandro Enrique Young-Hernandez of Hyde Park, told the Burlington Free Press he was employed as a case aide for the state’s Department of Children and Families. Both cases remain pending in federal court.

“I can’t comment,” U.S. Attorney Tristram Coffin said Friday when asked if the new case and the earlier one are connected.

Court papers filed with the new case allege that Posadas-Lara and Cardona-Paguada, whose nickname is “Sapo,” picked up Huerta-Mendez at her home Jan. 16 and drove to Vermont, where she engaged in acts of prostitution with farm workers. She has a previous misdemeanor conviction for prostitution in New York, a Homeland Security investigator’s affidavit stated.

The plan was for the three to stay at Posadas-Lara’s trailer at night and for her to engage in prostitution at various farms in northern Vermont during the next four days, after which the three would drive back to New York, according to court records. The location of the trailer was not disclosed in the affidavit.

“Huerta charged $50 for her services, which she split with ‘Sapo,’ who she described as being in charge,” the affidavit stated.

Jan. 18, Posadas-Lara told Cardona-Paguada to use his pickup truck to drive Huerta-Mendez to the farms because Posadas-Lara had to do something else, according to the affidavit. Cardona-Paguada was given a GPS to locate the farms, and a paper the contained a list of contacts at the farms, the affidavit stated.

Cardona-Paguada and Huerta-Mendez were taken into custody later that day after a border patrol agent questioned the two after noticing them working with a GPS as they sat in a car with Florida plates parked near the Berkshire Elementary School.

Cardona-Paguada and Huerta-Mendez told the agent they had were not in the United States legally and later admitted they were in Vermont so she could engage in prostitution at the farms, according to court records. The list of farm addresses was found ripped up and on the floor of the truck, the affidavit stated.

Posadas-Lara was taken into custody when he stopped at the border patrol facility in Richford to pick up his truck. He told the agents he let Cardona-Paguada borrow his truck to run some errands but denied knowing what Cardona-Paguada was doing or if he had a woman with him, court records stated.

Huerta-Mendez later picked Posadas-Lara’s picture out of a photo lineup as the person who picked her up in New York City and drove her to Vermont, the affidavit stated.


Contact Sam Hemingway at 660-1850 or shemingway@burlingtonfreepress.com.

Court affidavit outlines second prostitution case involving Vermont farm workers | Burlington Free Press | burlingtonfreepress.com

Updated 7:07 p.m., Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Associated Press



BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — The U.S. Border Patrol says a Honduran man is going to prison for 10 months after being convicted on charges he brought a prostitute to workers on dairy farms in Vermont and New York.

Jose Lorenzo Cardona-Paguada, (Ho-zay Lo-REN-zo Kar-DOE-nuh PAH-wah-da) was sentenced earlier this month.

He reached a plea deal with prosecutors earlier this year.

Court documents say Cardona and a Mexican woman, both illegal immigrants, were spotted by a Border Patrol agent last January by the side of the road in Richford.

Investigators found documents in the vehicle indicating the woman had been acting as a prostitute with workers at farms in Vermont and New York. Many dairy farms in the region use Hispanic workers.

Man gets 10 months in Vt. farmworker prostitution - SFGate