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One Man’s Fight To Clear His Name
Nesly Loute wants the world to know that he's not a criminal. To prove his truth he points to the up-
standing life he lived from the time he migrated to the United States from Haiti.
Since arriving here in 1990, Loute built a reputa- tion as a savvy entrepreneur who made a profitable living navigating the import/export industry while also becoming known as a kindhearted hu- manitarian who often sent much needed resources back to his native country.
Unfortunately, Loute's pristine image, the one he worked so hard to cultivate for almost three decades, took a major hit 3 years ago when the feds convicted him of mail fraud for his role in an insurance fraud conspir- acy that involved several chi- ropractic clinics across central and southern Florida.
To the federal government, Loute wasn't the mild man- nered citizen he made him- self out to be to his neighbors and friends. He was a mas- termind and ringleader of an operation that raked in hun- dreds of thousands of dollars in illegal profits.
According to Loute, though, his name has been sullied by a crime he didn't commit. "I'm innocent," Loute says. "My only mis- take was helping someone secure financing to open their business. And I want the American people to know what this system is really about and what it has done to me."
On the surface the gov- ernment's case against Loute appears quite solid with cooperating witnesses
coming forward to give state- ments that place Loute squarely in the middle of the scheme. But what makes their testimonies question- able is the fact that many of them contradicted them- selves during Loute's trial.
Some like the chiroprac- tor who Loute assisted, whose name is actually on the business Loute's ac- cused of operating and who was a registered government informant prior to Loute's case, admitted under oath that he never gave Loute any proceeds from the clinics operations.
While another witness, in this instance the head inves- tigator from the Special Med- ical Investigations office, who helped put the case against Loute together, claims to have never seen Loute until the day she was asked to point him out in a courtroom.
When you take these things into account, along with the fact that Loute's name doesn't appear listed on any ownership documents or mail associated with any of the clinics named in his in- dictment, even if you didn't believe Loute was com- pletely innocent, you would have to wonder how a jury could have come to the con- clusion that he was guilty of anything?
For Loute the answer to that conundrum is simple. "In the state system you are innocent until proven guilty," says Loute. "In the feds they find you guilty until you prove yourself innocent. It's all about money. When you don't have any money they do what they want with you."
What makes Loute's case even more peculiar is that, as he explains, the judge over his proceedings allowed the prosecution to re-write the charges in his indictment during the process. It was a blatant miscarriage of justice that, Loute contends, was difficult for him to challenge because of the conflict of in- terest he believes he faced in court.
"The private lawyer that I retained was also on the fed- eral government's payroll," Loute says. "How can I ex- pect him to fight for my best interest when he works for both sides?"
Today, Loute, 53, sits in- side of a federal prison serv- ing a 14-year sentence while preparing to take his case all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. He has taken the risk of coming for- ward to make his situation known because he says he wants everyone to be aware of how unfair the system ac- tually operates.
"The government, the court, the insurance compa- nies don't want me talking to the media or the ACLU," says Loute. "Now everyone is going to know how dirty and corrupt the system really is. I'm hoping that my story will inspire someone like Attor- ney Benjamin Crump to look into the matter of this kind of federal injustice."
Though Loute under- stands that the battle he faces will be long and hard fought, he finds strength in his faith. "They did everything to de- stroy my life because I wouldn't sign a plea deal and admit to something I didn't do," Loute says. "But God is great and I'm going to fight them to the very end. The truth will eventually come out."
For Loute's sake, it's dif- ficult not to hope he's right.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Com- pany. You can contact Mr. Barr at: cbar- ronice@gmail.com.
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Truth On Trial
hat seems forever, America has been shaken to
its foundation, by one fundamental question: “Who do you believe?” Most recently, two news re- porters – one, the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize; the other, a renowned journeyman of his profession – have been brought up in public opinion as being not “accurate” in their article’s conclusion that the Presi- dent of the United States may well have coached an- other individual to lie on his behalf before Congress.
When the Department of Justice was questioned, however, its members responded, the news articles were not incorrect, but were simply “not accurate.” What on earth did that mean?
Did the DOJ’s rebuke mean the news article was un- true? Thus far, the response to that response has been silence. But the damage has already been done. So, who do we believe? . . . a president who says we should believe nobody but him, or should we believe the DOJ that has now muddied the water by adding heaped lit- erary ambiguity?
What it boils down to is the question, “what is truth? If the news reporters are true, then a death knells has been sounded for an already besieged president. If un- true, America may find itself one step further toward oligarchy.
Yet, worse still, is the question what should our chil- dren believe regarding the once-sacred ideal of the sanctity of Truth? Has it come a point where our chil- dren may soon rebel in class and at home when or- dered to tell the truth . . . What truth?. . whose truth to tell?
Not even the best social predictor could now be about to guess the direction in which our nation is headed regarding its ever-changing definition of right and wrong. Why? The answer is elementary: Truth no longer is an absolute. Truth has become at best, part of an intellectual debate, and at worst, a political joke. And the Constitution of the United States is in the cross-hairs of the punch line.
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2019 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5-A