Thread: MA: Trial to start for official accused of hiring illegal

Published: March 12, 2010 10:00 pm
Trial to start for official accused of hiring illegal
Salem woman headed up a Homeland Security division
By Julie Manganis
Staff writer

SALEM — A former top Homeland Security official charged with hiring an illegal immigrant from Brazil to clean her Salem condo for nearly five years — and allegedly encouraging her to stay in the country — goes on trial Monday in Boston.

Lorraine Henderson, 52, was the Boston area port director for the Department of Homeland Security, responsible for border security and ensuring people did not enter the country illegally through Logan Airport and other points of entry in New England, until her arrest in 2008.

But during that time, she was paying a Brazilian national named Fabiana Bittencourt to clean her two-bedroom, $330,000 condo on Brittania Circle, an upscale development off Highland Avenue, prosecutors allege.

The trial will get under way with jury selection in U.S. District Court before Judge Douglas Woodlock and is expected to take six to eight days.

Henderson's defense insists that as soon as she learned that Bittencourt was in the United States illegally, she tried to find a way to gain her legal residency, but when that failed, she no longer encouraged her to stay.

"Briefly stated, it is the defendant's position that, once she was convinced that the alien's presence in the United States was unlawful and that there was no procedure available to legitimize her presence, the defendant determined to discontinue, and did in fact discontinue, Ms. Bittencourt's housecleaning services," defense lawyer Francis DiMento stated in a trial brief.

Prosecutors point to recorded conversations between Henderson and Bittencourt, who wore a body wire to capture their discussions, and written notes exchanged between the two, in which Henderson advises Bittencourt not to leave the country because she would not be allowed to return.

Prosecutors also allege that Henderson had known for more than two years that Bittencourt was in the country illegally, after a fellow Homeland Security employee, Nora Ehrlich, who had also hired Bittencourt, discovered her status and fired her.

Ehrlich is expected to testify that she had warned Henderson in 2006 that she should stop using Bittencourt.

"In February 2008, Ehrlich learned that Henderson was still employing Bittencourt and several of Bittencourt's Brazilian friends to clean her home," according to a trial brief.

Bittencourt subsequently agreed to cooperate with investigators and continued to clean Henderson's condo every two weeks, being paid in cash, communicating through notes. Henderson even referred Bittencourt to a neighbor.

During a conversation in September 2008, Bittencourt engaged Henderson in conversation, asking if the car with the Homeland Security markings was hers, then said she needed help "because I have a little problem, you know."

Henderson indicated that she thought Bittencourt was going to get married, then advised Bittencourt "you have to put in paperwork and file, but ... you have to be careful 'cause they will deport you. Be careful."

She went on to advise her on the tape, "Wow, wow, if you leave, they won't let you back ... you can't leave, don't leave ... 'cause once you leave you will never be back."

Prosecutors say Henderson then offered to find out what Bittencourt could do to stay in the country, then made arrangements for her to come back in two weeks.

Prosecutors also allege that all of the payments were made in cash, which was unusual for Henderson, they say, because other service workers at her home were paid by check.

Before her arrest, Henderson had contacted another Brazilian couple about cleaning her home and hired them. They cleaned the condo just once before Henderson was arrested.

Henderson is facing up to five years in prison if convicted. Prosecutors had originally planned to argue that she used the illegal worker "for private financial gain," which would have doubled that potential penalty to 10 years, but have dropped that part of the case.

www.salemnews.com

Housekeeper testifies against customs official
Brazilian recounts help she got to remain in US
By Shelley Murphy
Globe Staff / March 19, 2010

A Brazilian housekeeper testified yesterday that she paid $10,000 to be smuggled across the Mexican border into the United States in the summer of 2001 and put on a plane to Massachusetts.

Fabiana Bitencourt, 31, of Peabody said she got a job bagging groceries at a Stop & Shop by using a fake Social Security number, obtained a Maine driver’s license with no questions asked about her immigration status, and earned up to $800 a week cleaning houses.

Then, the government caught up to Bitencourt. In May 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents confronted her with allegations she had been cleaning the Salem condominium of Lorraine Henderson, a top official of the Department of Homeland Security.

“The only thing I thought about was I just had a baby and I was afraid they were going to put me in jail,’’ Bitencourt said tearfully in federal court yesterday, adding that she agreed to cooperate, to secretly record conversations, and to gather evidence that led to Henderson’s indictment.

Bitencourt, who speaks some English, testified in Portuguese as an interpreter translated into English for jurors during the fourth day of Henderson’s trial in US District Court in Boston on a charge that she encouraged an illegal alien to remain in the country.

Henderson, 52, was suspended without pay from her job as regional director of homeland security, customs, and border protection after her arrest 15 months ago.

At the request of federal agents, Bitencourt said she showed up at Henderson’s home on Sept. 9, 2008, wearing a hidden body recorder and asked for help with an immigration issue.

“You know somebody who’s . . . can help me?’’ Bitencourt asked, according to a recording of the meeting played for jurors on Wednesday. She added she wanted to be “legal,’’ and “I have a little problem.’’

Henderson, according to the recording, pointed out that Bitencourt’s baby was a US citizen and said, “You have to put in paperwork and file, but you . . . have to be careful, ’cause they’ll deport you.’’

Henderson said she was on her way to Washington, but would find out “what you have to do and if there’s an easier way.’’

Bitencourt told Henderson she had come from Brazil, without a visa, seven years earlier.

“Wow,’’ said Henderson, according to the recording. “You can’t leave. Don’t leave . . . ’Cause once you leave, you will never come back.’’

Bitencourt said she didn’t want to leave and wanted to stay in the United States.

During his opening statement to the jury, Boston attorney Francis J. DiMento, who represents Henderson, said that all Henderson did was hire Bitencourt to clean her home occasionally, which is not a crime.

It is not illegal to hire an illegal immigrant to perform sporadic domestic work; however it is a felony to encourage or entice an illegal immigrant to remain in the country.

During her opening remarks, Assistant US Attorney Diane C. Freniere said Henderson “violated the same immigration law that she had taken an oath to uphold.’’

Before her suspension, Henderson was Boston area port director for Customs and Border Protection, managing 90 armed officers who oversee ports of entry in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

Bitencourt testified that she started cleaning Henderson’s two-bedroom condominium in March 2004 after Henderson saw a business card she had left at the complex advertising her services and called. She said she cleaned Henderson’s unit about every two weeks between 2004 and 2008, charging $75 each time.

The housekeeper said she also cleaned the home of Henderson’s neighbor and co-worker, Nora Ehrlich, until December 2005, when Ehrlich asked her about her immigration status.

“I told her the truth, that I came here illegally,’’ Bitencourt testified. “I cried. I was afraid.’’

She said Ehrlich told her she could no longer work for her and should not be working for Henderson either, because both worked for the government.

But Bitencourt said Henderson never asked her if she was in the country illegally, and she continued to clean her home. Ehrlich reported Henderson’s employment of Bitencourt to superiors.

Bitencourt said she stopped cleaning shortly before her son was born in February 2008 and had two friends, who also were illegal immigrants, clean Henderson’s condo until she was able to resume her business later that year.

Bitencourt said she is now a legal resident.

After the government rested its case yesterday, Henderson took the stand briefly and is scheduled to resume testifying today.

Born and raised in New York City, Henderson said she started working at the Customs Service when she was 17, a week after graduating from high school. She told jurors she worked her way up through the agency.

www.boston.com