Thread: Woman convicted of harboring an illegal immigrant

By Robert Gavin
Updated 4:39 pm, Friday, March 8, 2013
timesunion.com


Llenroc, the late Al Lawrenece's mansion,Friday afternoon December 18, 2009. The property just sold for $1.9 million, a fraction of the $12 million realtors originally wanted to sell it for. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union)


ALBANY — Jurors convicted Annie George on Friday of harboring an illegal immigrant, but cleared her of harboring the woman for financial gain.

George, 40, of Rexford, faces up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 after being found guilty of the lesser-included charge.

She is likely to face a less-stringent punishment under federal sentencing guidelines because she has no criminal history.

George and her attorney, Mark Sacco, quickly left the federal courthouse after the verdict. She did not speak to the media as she entered a white minivan on Broadway.

Sacco said George would appeal the conviction.

Jurors deliberated for 8 to 10 hours over two days after a weeklong trial before Chief U.S. District Court Judge Gary Sharpe.

Sharpe will decide next week on forfeiture issues related to George's conviction.

Jurors reached their decision after rehearing testimony from George in which she referred to the servant, 49-year-old Valsamma Mathai, as "the maid." The testimony contradicted George's defense that Mathai, a fellow native of India, was never her employee.

Mathai testified earlier this week that she worked 17- to 18-hour shifts with no days off and no sick leave. She said she was paid $1,000 a week for the arrangement by George and George's late husband, who wanted Mathai to prepare meals, clean their home and take care of their six children.

Mathai worked for the Georges for 5½ years, starting in 2005. She worked in three homes for the family, the last being the 30,000-square foot Llenroc mansion at 708 Riverview Road in Rexford, where she slept in a closet.

An immigration official said Mathai should have earned $317,144 working for George — but an investigator sad she only received $21,000.

The conviction came after George testified in her own defense and, under pressure from her attorney, said she was repeatedly abused by her late husband, Mathai Kolath George. She claimed her husband made all of the family's most important decisions — including allowing Mathai to live with them.

The spouse and one of their six children, George Kolath Jr., died in a private plane crash in 2009.

George testified she had no idea Mathai was an illegal immigrant when she worked for the family, which ended when federal agents arrived at Llenroc on May 3, 2011, and ended the situation. They brought Mathai to a shelter.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Belliss confronted George on her claim that Mathai was not an employee and that she never knew the woman was an illegal immigrant. Belliss played tape-recorded phone conversations for the jury in which the son of the servant, Shiju Mathai, spoke to George in the months after the federal agents took his mother from the George home.

On one recording, George said: "If (Mathai) says that she's working here, that's a big problem. They'll put her in jail for sure."

George also said: "All it took was one person to say something and look what has happened now."

At another time, George told the son: "If she says anything about working, Shiju, it'll be a big crime."

Sentencing is set for July 9.

Woman convicted of harboring an illegal immigrant - Times Union

How many more are doing the same thing ?

U.S. attorney standing firm on guilty verdict and forfeiture of Llenroc mansion in Rexford servitude case

Published: Thursday, May 30, 2013
By GLENN GRIFFITH

CLIFTON PARK — A U.S. attorney has responded to a motion to vacate the jury decision of a Rexford woman found guilty of harboring an illegal alien.

In a brief filed May 17, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District Richard Hartunian said the March 8 decision in the case of Annie George is supported by evidence and the jury’s decision should stand

George, 40, of 708 Riverview Road, Rexford was found guilty of harboring an illegal alien in a five-day trial in U.S. Federal Court in Albany. She was found not guilty of a separate charge of harboring an illegal alien for financial gain.

George faces a fine of $250,000, 10 years in prison and forfeiture of her home, Llenroc. She is scheduled to be sentenced July 9.

In his brief, Hartunian said there must be real concern that an innocent person may have been convicted. In his eyes, that is not the case, noting that he felt the evidence was sufficient to support the jury’s guilty verdict. Hartunian was responding to a motion made March 22 by George’s defense attorney Mark Sacco asking that the jury’s judgement be vacated by the court and a new trial ordered.

Sacco had argued that the verdict should be vacated because the government did not present sufficient evidence to prove George knowingly harbored an illegal alien. In a follow up to that motion on April 24, Sacco stated that the government also presented improper evidence to the jury using two sets of transcription of phone conversations. The phone calls were made in Malayalam, a language spoken in India and were said to be between George and Shiju Mathai, the son of Valsamma Mathai, the woman at the center of the case.

In late March, Sacco also moved to squash an action by the government to take possession of the 34-room Llenroc home. The home was built by the late insurance magnate Albert Lawrence.

Hartunian responded to Sacco’s request to forego the forfeiture on May 20 saying forfeiture is appropriate because of the “seriousness” of the offense. The U.S. attorney said taking the home is not be punitive, but a means of removing the property that enabled the crime. Sacco had also made the case that taking Lenroc would remove a home for George’s children, but Hartunian said sympathy holds no place in analysis.http://cnweekly.com/articles/2013/05...mode=fullstory