Thank God slavery is against the law.
This teacher must've missed the class on the Emancipation Proclamation.
Former Miami-Dade teacher gets 7 years for enslaving Haitian girl
BY VANESSA BLUM South Florida Sun-Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE - A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a South Florida woman to seven years and three months in prison for keeping a teenage girl from Haiti in servitude for six years.Maude Paulin, 52, a former Miami-Dade County middle school teacher, was convicted in March along with her mother, Evelyn Theodore, of conspiring to enslave the girl, forcing her to work and harboring an illegal immigrant.Before being sentenced, Paulin apologized to U.S. District Judge Jose Gonzalez Jr., saying she had good intentions when she arranged to bring Simone Celestin from Haiti to live with her family."I love Simone with all my heart," Paulin said. "Unfortunately, I can't change what is already done."
BY VANESSA BLUM South Florida Sun-Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE - A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a South Florida woman to seven years and three months in prison for keeping a teenage girl from Haiti in servitude for six years.Maude Paulin, 52, a former Miami-Dade County middle school teacher, was convicted in March along with her mother, Evelyn Theodore, of conspiring to enslave the girl, forcing her to work and harboring an illegal immigrant.Before being sentenced, Paulin apologized to U.S. District Judge Jose Gonzalez Jr., saying she had good intentions when she arranged to bring Simone Celestin from Haiti to live with her family."I love Simone with all my heart," Paulin said. "Unfortunately, I can't change what is already done."
Friends, relatives and former students crowded the benches behind Paulin and cried as she spoke. Celestin, 22, who testified at trial that Paulin forced her to sleep on the floor and work 15 hours a day, sat quietly in the back row.Prosecutor Edward Chung said Paulin had shown no remorse for "an extremely serious crime."
"This was a middle school teacher placed in charge of this community's children," Chung said. "She was the one who committed this crime and she's the one who still to this day believes she's done nothing wrong."Paulin's ex-husband, Saintfort Paulin, who was convicted of harboring an illegal immigrant, was sentenced to 18 months' probation, including six months' home confinement, and ordered to pay a $500 fine.
A sentencing hearing for Theodore, 74, who suffered a stroke after her conviction, has been postponed.Miramar resident Claire Telasco, Paulin's sister, was charged in the case and found not guilty by the Broward jury.At trial, Celestin testified that she was brought to the United States from Haiti when she was 14 and never enrolled in school.
When she failed to finish her long list of chores, Maude Paulin and Theodore would beat her with "anything handy," including shoes and kitchenware, Celestin said.
