Cuba deports American who fled sex abuse charges
Cuba has returned to the U.S. a 'Most Wanted' criminal who fled to the
island to avoid charges for sexually abusing a child. The man had sent
e-mails declaring himself `so safe, it's laughable.'
Posted on Sat, Jun. 14, 2008
Associated Press
HAVANA --
Cuba proved to be no refuge for an American fugitive who was deported
Friday to face federal charges in California of sexually abusing a Costa
Rican girl and possessing child pornography.
Leonard B. Auerbach, 61, evidently thought he was beyond the reach of
U.S. law enforcement in Cuba, which has no extradition treaty with the
United States. He sent e-mails to friends last month boasting of how he
escaped arrest, said Rob Chrisman, an acquaintance of Auerbach's in the
San Francisco Bay Area.
''I am in some kind of paradise here and I'm so safe, it's laughable,''
Chrisman said Auerbach wrote from Cuba.
It wasn't immediately clear how U.S. officials tracked him down, but
they evidently alerted Cuban authorities to his presence on the island
and he was arrested on May 7, about a month after arriving.
Cuba said Friday it decided to deport Auerbach because his alleged
crimes ``are of a grave character and strongly fought by our authorities.''
The Foreign Ministry added that there is no evidence he committed crimes
in Cuba.
Such deportations are an increasingly common example of cooperation
between the United States and communist Cuba. Auerbach is the fourth
American fugitive Cuba has deported to the United States since President
Raúl Castro first took provisional power from his ailing brother Fidel
in July 2006.
Auerbach, a mortgage specialist from Orinda, Calif., was named on the
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's ''most wanted'' list after
failing to appear for arraignment in California.
A court document filed in the case said Auerbach frequently traveled to
have sex with the Costa Rican girl beginning when she was 12 and that he
took pornographic pictures of the child. She recently turned 16.
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