Cuban Exile Exonerated of Rape Remains Behind Bars

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MADELEINE BRAND, host:

This is DAY TO DAY. I'm Madeleine Brand.

NOAH ADAMS, host:

And I'm Noah Adams. In a few minutes, acting shifty at the airport. Federal authorities could be watching you. We'll have a story about a TSA program designed to identify potential terrorists by their behavior.

BRAND: But first, the strange story of Orlando Bosquette, he's a Cuban emigre who spent 10 years on the lam, in this country, after escaping from prison. He had been serving a 65-year sentence for rape. He has since been cleared of that crime through DNA evidence, but he's still in custody because of some false names he assumed while on the run. New York Times reporter Jim Dwyer's here to tell us more about Orlando Bosquette's strange odyssey. Hi, Jim.

Mr. JIM DWYER (Reporter, New York Times): Hi.

BRAND: First tell us about his escape which sounds extraordinary. It was actually modeled on the book, Papillon?

Mr. DWYER: Well, it was inspired by the book, Papillon. He wasn't on Devils Island, he was in a prison in Florida and he scaled two fences with another man. They hid in a canal just outside the prison grounds, or just on the perimeter of the fences, for a number of hours; and then he went into a ditch where he got eaten up by ants for another eight hours; and finally he landed himself with some migrant farm workers.

Took shelter with them for a number of months, actually, and then went on his way. And as he traveled around cities in the South, primarily south Florida, he would take up the names of people who had died recently, or who he had heard about, to get their social security numbers. And this was how he made his living.

BRAND: And he did this for some 10 years?

Mr. DWYER: That's right, yeah. He worked in south Florida; and then up in New Jersey for awhile; in Union City, which had been a Cuban enclave; and in Chicago at the Weber barbeque factory.

BRAND: And then some of these alter egos he assumed, actually had outstanding warrants, right?

Mr. DWYER: Yes. Some of them were dead. Some of them were not dead or were on the lam themselves. So he was picked up a number of times on warrants for outstanding drunk and disorderly, or driving while intoxicated, or things like that. And what he did, he said, to survive, was to quickly take a plea, do 20 or 30 days, rather than get into a hassle and explain well, no I'm not really the guy you're looking for - I'm another guy. Because the other guy he was, his true self, was in a lot more trouble than somebody who owed 30 days.

BRAND: Right. And so - but after 10 years or so, he was eventually caught.

Mr. DWYER: He actually made a second escape from jail. He was arrested again, in I think, '95, and had to do a six-month term for somebody who had a number of outstanding DUIs. And while he was in that, he was concerned that they would be more rigorous about looking at his fingerprints than they had been in some of the county jails.

So, he bolted from a work gang, was on the run for several more months, and finally somebody snitched on him in the street and he was picked up and linked back to this original crime. The rape took place in 1982, he was convicted in '83.

BRAND: So, since then, he actually cleared his name.

Mr. DWYER: That's right. He started digging up the old court records and eventually applied for DNA testing. He did this with the cooperation of the state's attorney down in the Florida Keys where this crime took place, a man named Mark Kohl. And also a lawyer from the Innocence Project in New York named Nina Morrison. And the two of them - actually they worked very collaboratively to figure out whether this was Mr. Bosquette's DNA or not. And it wasn't. He was completely cleared of the original crime for which he was sentenced.

BRAND: And that happened when?

Mr. DWYER: That officially happened yesterday. I mean it's been underway for the last couple of months. It was clear that it wasn't going to be him.

BRAND: And so now where is he?

Mr. DWYER: Well, now Judge - a Florida judge yesterday, told him he was a free man. The state of Florida had no further claims on him. The various prosecutors involved in the crimes he did commit, i.e. escape, which is a crime, whether you're guilty or innocent - you're not allowed to escape - they all agreed that there was no interest in the justice system, in prosecuting him for that.

So, Florida let him go, but the immigration officials immediately arrested him - rearrested him - and are holding him while they decide whether he should be deported or not, for having committed crimes while - he was legally here in the country, but he was not a citizen.

BRAND: Now, are these crimes he admits to committing, or are these the crimes that his alter egos had committed?

Mr. DWYER: It appears they are saying that he's responsible for the crimes that these alter egos committed, and to which he stood up in court and took the wrap.

BRAND: Well, thanks a lot.

Mr. DWYER: Thank you.

BRAND: Jim Dwyer is a reporter with the New York Times.

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