American man found guilty for sexual abuse of Haitian boys

MIAMI — A Michigan man was convicted Thursday of traveling to Haiti to sexually abuse young residents of a group home he ran for poor children in the Caribbean country.

After 90 minutes of deliberation, jurors convicted Matthew Andrew Carter, of Brighton, Mich., on five counts of traveling from Florida for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity with minors, along with one count of attempting child sex tourism.

Carter, who also went by the names “William Charles Harcourt” and “Bill Carter,” ran the Morning Star Center in Haiti, first in Croix-des-Bouquets and then in the capital of Port-au-Prince, from 1995 until 2011. His attorneys have described him as a military veteran who became a missionary and wanted to lift a generation of Haitian children out of poverty through education and Bible study.

Carter, 67, had no reaction as the verdict was read, but denied the allegations when he testified Tuesday. Both prosecutors and Carter’s attorneys declined comment after the trial.

Former Morning Star residents testified in Miami federal court during the three-week trial that Carter forced them to perform sexual acts on him when they were children.

WP

Andre Berto fires long-time trainer

The alarming thing about seeing former two-time welterweight titlist Andre Berto losing two of his last three fights – to Robert Guerrero and Victor Ortiz -- was his inability to adjust to his opponents in those defeats, not to mention the disarray in his corner when thing got rough.

Berto, perhaps realizing these were issues, announced Wednesday that has fired career-long trainer Tony Morgan.

They had been together for nearly 20 years, including Berto’s amateur career that culminated with a berth on the 2004 Haitian Olympic team.

Berto, 29, said it was a difficult decision to part ways with Morgan.

"Tony and I had a great ride together from the amateurs to two professional world championships, and he will always be a very important person in my life," Berto said in a statement. “He taught me a lot and I am grateful to him for that, but this is a decision I had to make at this point in my career.”


ESPN

How the U.N. caused Haiti's Cholera epidemic

The organization is functionally above the law -- and victims of Haiti's cholera outbreak aren't the only ones paying the price.

If a multinational corporation behaved the way the U.N. did in Haiti, it would be sued for stratospheric amounts of money. And that's just for starters: Were Unilever or Coca-Cola responsible for a cholera outbreak that killed 8,000 people and infected 640,000 more, and for subsequently covering up its employees' failure to adhere to basic sanitation standards, it is likely their executives would have difficulty visiting countries claiming universal legal jurisdiction. They would have to contend with Interpol red notices, along with the occasional cream pie attack. And the companies themselves would go into damage control mode, akin to BP's post-oil-spill public relations blitz, or Wal-Mart's pivot toward promoting American-made products. They'd acknowledge the need to convince skeptical consumers that their corporate behavior had changed.

The U.N. and its leadership won't have to worry about any of this. But maybe it should.

INTERVIEW: Glen Ford talks U.S. Gives Haiti the Gift of Prisons on Black Agenda Radio

[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20130220_gf_HaitiPrisons.mp3|titles=U.S. Gives Haiti the Gift of Prisons|artists=Black Agenda Radio Commentaries]

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

The United States, in its infinite kindness, is making Haiti a gift of two penal institutions. It's actually the most back-handed kind of charity. In order to keep Haiti a failed state, the occupiers deny the Haitian government funds for even the most basic functions of government: law and order.”

BHR