Lawyer: INS ordered Elian files destroyed

By DAVID CAZARES      
Web-posted: 11:33 p.m. Jan. 5, 2001

Miami employees of the Immigration and Naturalization Service were ordered to destroy or conceal documents and electronic mail related to the Elian Gonzalez case, according to a deposition by an attorney who represents INS workers.
   In a deposition given last month for the federal lawsuit that Elian's Miami relatives have filed against the U.S. government, Coral Springs attorney Donald Appignani testified that INS employees had told him that "the U.S. government could be breaking the law."
   "Basically, that is what I heard," Appignani testified. "People were instructed to remove anything derogatory to the Elian Gonzalez case."
   Appignani, a labor lawyer who represents the union that bargains for INS employees and also handles the employees' equal employment complaints against the government, would not reveal which employees told him of the orders, who gave the instructions, or what information the documents and e-mail contained. He said he did not hear the orders directly; they were related to him by employees.
   At the urging of his clients, Appignani in November approached lawyer Ronald Guralnick with the information. Guralnick represents the family of Lazaro Gonzalez, the great-uncle who tried to keep the boy here and is now suing the federal government and Miami police, claiming the April 22 raid that removed the boy violated the family's constitutional rights.
   Guralnick deems the information so valuable that he has asked U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno to order Appignani to disclose all he knows.
   "This is a major break in the case," Guralnick said. "I'm looking forward to the court's ruling on our motion to compel attorney Appignani to testify to the questions he refused to answer at deposition, and I'm looking forward to talking to his clients."
   Aloyma M. Sanchez, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said it would support Guralnick's motion to compel Appignani to provide more detail.
   "These are serious allegations," Sanchez said. "We want to uncover the truth."
   Appignani also testified that INS employees thought there was an atmosphere of contempt toward Cuban-Americans at the INS regional office in Miami, which could prove detrimental to the government if brought out at trial before a jury.
   He said he saw a cup circulated at INS offices with a plastic wrapper imprinted with a Cuban flag inside a circle with a red line drawn through it. On the other side was an image of a stopwatch with the number 154 inside -- for the 154 seconds it took agents to remove Elian from his Miami relatives' home.
   Appignani also confirmed he had told Guralnick that, after the raid, INS Regional Director Robert Wallis told about 50 INS employees that "it was the happiest day of his life when he saw a photograph of a person on the ground with a gun pointed at his head, because before the negotiations (between the Justice Department and the relatives' lawyers) this person wouldn't shake his hand."
   Appignani said he did not hear Wallis say this but was told he had.
   Wallis could not be reached for comment Friday.
   Under questioning from Justice Department Attorney Nina Pelletier, Appignani said he did not go to the authorities after employees told him they thought laws had been broken but went to Guralnick because that's what his clients had asked him to do.
   In court documents, Appignani said he should not have to reveal who his clients are because they fear reprisal by their employers, the INS and the Justice Department.
   "I don't really know if anything illegal was done or not, but it's not my position to figure that out," he said. "The reason they didn't go to the authorities is because the authorities are the employer and the defendant in the case."
   It's uncertain how much the INS employees' complaints will play in the trial because unless Guralnick and his investigators can prove that INS officials ordered the destruction of evidence, it would be difficult to allege a crime.
   David Cazares can be reached at dcazares@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5012.
   
     
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