Haiti prosecutor seeks 6-month sentence for U.S. missionary

Thanks for trying to help out, Now your going to jail.

clipped from www.cnn.com (CNN) -- A Haitian prosecutor asked for a six-month prison sentence Thursday for an American missionary accused of trying to take nearly three dozen children out of the country after a devastating and deadly earthquake in January. Laura Silsby's attorney, Chiller Roy, said the judge is expected to make a ruling in the next few days. Silsby was charged with trying to arrange "irregular travel" for 33 children she planned to take to an orphanage she was building in the Dominican Republic. She was jailed January 29, along with nine other American missionaries who were later released.

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Freed from Haiti, missionary returns 'with mixed emotions'

clipped from www.cnn.com Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- After more than a month in a Haitian jail, an American missionary was free Monday night, looking forward to a hot shower and a long night in bed on home soil. But Charisa Coulter's heart remains in Haiti, her father said, because her best friend, Laura Silsby is now alone behind bars. "She came back with mixed emotions," Mel Coulter told CNN affiliate WSVN in Miami, Florida. Coulter is staying in a hotel by herself, her father said. He did not know when she might return home to Boise, Idaho. He said his daughter had been through a "trying experience" and was welcoming the solitude. Coulter, Silsby and eight other Americans had been detained in Haiti on suspicion of kidnapping 33 children after the killer earthquake January 12. Silsby said she was "very happy that Charisa went home today." She expected her freedom would soon follow. "I came here to help these children," she said.

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New lawyer in Haiti case: Missionaries acted with 'heart'

clipped from www.usatoday.com PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Newly appointed lawyers for the U.S. missionaries accused of child trafficking emerged from a court hearing Monday and said their clients violated no laws when they tried to rescue 33 Haitian children.. "The Americans acted with heart," lawyer Aviol Fleurant said outside a courthouse in the capital. "They had no intention to violate the Haitian law." Fleurant said the missionaries "have a document" authorizing them to take the children, and he predicted their exoneration. Fleurant and another lawyer were appointed Monday to represent Laura Silsby and nine volunteers, most from a Baptist church in Idaho, after their original lawyer was fired last weekend over an allegation of bribery. "I am trusting God to reveal all truth and that we will be released and exonerated of charges, and we are just waiting for the Haitian process, legal process, to complete," she told a throng of reporters as she was led away to a police van.

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