Delays and confusion mar
Samoan slavery trial
The end of the biggest human trafficking case in U.S. history seemed imminent, with Attorney General John Ashcroft calling a news conference to proclaim victory over "an assault on the nation's core beliefs."
Ashcroft announced Thursday that the South Korean owner of an American Samoa factory engaged in modern-day slavery would learn his fate in hours -- and the sentence of seven Texas men who repeatedly raped women smuggled into the country had already been decided.
"Today, Kil Soo Lee faces the laws -- and the justice -- of the United States," Ashcroft said of the former owner of the Daewoosa Samoa Ltd. Factory in American Samoa.
Yet in federal court in Honolulu, some 4,800 miles away from Washington, Lee's sentencing, already delayed seven months, was put off for nearly four more months.
All that is certain in a case that has dragged on for three years is that it will drag on even longer.
At the end of a curious all-day session in which Lee, his lawyers and the judge all showed varying degrees of exasperation, frustration and confusion, two people were sentenced, but Lee, the man described as the ringleader of the scheme, was not.
Sialavaa Fagaima, a seamstress involved in one of the most heinous incidents at the plant -- in which she gouged out a co-worker's eye with a pipe -- was sentenced to four years and three months in prison.
She cried as she addressed the court, saying, "There has never been a day or a night where I have forgotten what I have done. I wish I could turn it back, but I can't."
Another former employee at Daewoosa, Elekana Nuuuli Ioane, a supervisor who was under orders from Lee to carry out or assign the beating of workers, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison.
"I just want to say sorry," he said. "What I did was wrong."
Two other Daewoosa managers, Virginia Soliai and Robert Atimalala, stood trial with Lee but were acquitted.
Lee was convicted last Feb. 21 of 11 counts of involuntary servitude, as well as conspiracy, extortion and money laundering at his factory, which made clothes for J.C. Penney Co. and other retailers before it was closed by the National Labor Relations Board and the Department of Labor about three years ago.
In the Honolulu courtroom, disagreement arose over whether Lee had seen the pre-sentencing report -- a requirement before he could be sentenced. Lee insisted he'd never seen the document.
"I don't know what it is about," the defendant said, his words translated from Korean.
Lee eventually agreed he'd seen the report but had not had it explained in detail.
After an hourlong recess, Lee's own attorney, Earle Partington, said he could no longer communicate with his client and asked that Lee be given a mental examination. He said Lee's replies to his questions were incomplete, inconsistent and unintelligible.
"I might as well not be here today," Partington said.
U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway agreed to the mental exam and the sentencing was put off until May 6. Lee's original sentencing date, last June, was delayed after he dismissed his previous attorney, Alexander Silvert.
If the sentencing does go forward this spring as scheduled, Partington plans an appeal, partly based on an argument first brought by Silvert early in the case -- that the government had no right to bring Lee to Hawaii, even though its U.S. District Court is the closest to American Samoa, a U.S. territory 2,300 miles south of here.
The defense says federal law provides for the High Court of American Samoa to hear cases involving crimes within the territory.
If the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agrees, some observers see the case going to the Supreme Court.
For now, though, Lee remains at the Federal Detention Center near the Honolulu airport, where he's been held for nearly three years. He faces a sentence of up to 30 years.