New York Paralegal Blog

Five defendants were sentenced this week for their participation in a corruption scheme involving the 2000 resident commissioner and 2004 gubernatorial campaigns of a former governor of Puerto Rico, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez. The defendants were sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico by U.S. District Court Judge Paul J. Barbadoro, sitting by designation from the District of New Hampshire. Former Puerto Rico Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá , 47, and Luisa Inclán Bird, 49, a legal advisor for the San Juan resident commissioner office when Acevedo Vilá served as resident commissioner, were acquitted on March 20, 2009, of all criminal charges related to the scheme. The five defendants sentenced were: Jorge Velasco Mella, 39, of San Juan, Puerto Rico, who was sentenced on May 21, 2009, to three years probation, including...

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department announced today the settlement of a lawsuit against Salem County and the borough of Penns Grove, N.J., alleging violations of the rights of Puerto Rican voters under the Voting Rights Act. The settlement agreement requires the county and borough to ensure that elections are equally open to Latino voters, that Spanish language assistance and materials be available at the polls, and that Spanish-speaking voters be allowed to select the assistor of their choice. One of the concerns that led to the Civil Rights Division’s investigation was that the borough and county were violating the rights of voters who had been educated in Spanish in American-flag schools in Puerto Rico. The settlement agreement was filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey contemporaneously with the complaint and an accompanying proposed order allowing federal observers to monitor election day activities in its polling place. The order still must be appro...