Was Justice Done In Topeka Kansas?

Complicated case in Topeka, Kansas.

The owner of an Indian restaurant has been sentenced to three concurrent 18-month jail terms for harboring "unauthorized workers for commercial advantage or private financial gain", all 3 of whom were Indian nationals.

When the story first broke last year, the charges against 33-year old Amarpreet "Latti" Singh also included allegations that some of his restaurant staff were virtually being treated as slaves. None of these allegations of coercion ended up being proven in court, however, due to conflicting testimony presented at the trial.

According to an April press release from the US Department of Justice, "[p]rosecutors also presented evidence that the defendant withheld workers’ wages and identification documents. Workers were required to work long hours six days a week at the restaurant and live in an apartment the defendant provided."

The trial was triggered by the death of one of the owner's staff at this apartment:

One employee, Jacinta Sebastian Pereria, 45, whose body was found April 28, 2008, in a Topeka apartment Singh rented for his employees, had previously complained he was forced to work at the restaurant. Pereria died of acute pneumonia caused by bacteria, according to court records.

Earlier reports of Singh's indictment provide some contradictory accounts of that living and working relationship:

Jancintra Sebastian Pereria entered the United States with a tourist visa in June 2005. In April 2008, investigators said he was working nearly 70 hours per week as a waiter at the Globe making about $1,200 a month, occasionally wiring money to his wife. While he told the informant he wanted to return to India, Pereria said Singh wouldn't allow him to do so.
... Police discovered [Pereria] in the bathroom of the residence wearing a waiter's uniform from the Globe [restaurant]. The affidavit states Singh initially denied Pereria worked for him, despite keeping the man's identification and passport at the restaurant. Court documents state Singh told police Pereria was a homeless drunk he took in because they happened to have a common Indian origin.

At the trial, testimony given by a special agent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Pereria's unlawful working conditions was countered by a Topeka attorney's statements on behalf of the accused restaurant owner. The defense witness, "[...who] has known Singh for five years and eaten at the restaurant on a daily basis, said he never saw Singh threaten or coerce his employees. "It was a collegial relationship that I saw," Benson said. Singh treated employees with respect and sponsored a birthday party for Pereria, which was "well received" by Pereria and other employees, he said. Benson was one of six witnesses who testified on Singh's behalf."

What is a bystander to make of this story? Who are we to believe? Character witnesses saying that the accused is a nice guy and a good family man isn't necessarily proof that he isn't morally capable of holding people in coerced servitude. After all, even George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were slave owners, establishing that ".... one may smile, and smile, and be a villain." [Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5]

Is this a case of proven innocence, or unproven guilt? I don't know enough to have an opinion, so I've tried to be objective in my post on the outcome of the trial.

There are some that are in a better position to deliver an informed opinion, and yet even they are divided. The restaurant's current and former customers have been giving their verdicts online, courtesy of restaurant review sites. (The Globe restaurant has remained open throughout the trial) While researching the story, I found this one-star review by "Dennis", posted back in December 2008 as a comment on the more serious charges against the restaurant's owner:

I believe Singh did this! I always blew off his bad people skills when I ate there before. The food was delicious, after all, so I just braced myself for the bad service...
I feel for the people who had to live under Singh's form of abduction! I feel for the family of the man who died. I remember seeing these people working for him. I remember Jancintra, who was sometimes the only waiter working the restaurant. I tried to tip him directly, as I would see Singh clear the tables.
Now I understand that Singh was trying to keep the tips. Boycott The Globe! I just can't believe the number of people who will still eat there. I guess the idea of human rights escapes some people.

To be fair, there are plenty of positive judgements that balance against Dennis' negative one, including this recent November 2009 review reproduced verbatim at the restaurant's website [typos in the original]:

Currently, Latti Singh awaits sentencing. As media sponges, we are free to believe that he was exploiting a worker that died. We are also free to believe that the worker just became sick adn that the Immigration Naturalization Service, under the Bush Administration, were urged to prosecute anything that looked suspicious. Or, we can ignor the media altogether and forgo the burden of personally judging the guild or innocence of a man. We can carefully choose to bring our business to a family that benefits from our help and support - now as they struggle with the court system, and in the coming months as a patriach could be removed from the family who depends on him.

Our money is powerful. Not only can we withhold it from the things we disapprove of, but we can also use it to support the things we believe in: hard-working people, local business, invigorating the culture of Topeka, and a family that needs the support of its community.

The owner may not be guilty of the serious charges of exploitation, but he was found guilty of employing illegal aliens at his restaurant. What about the breadwinners of local families that need "the support of its community", who weren't hired as waiters because the owner was using illegal immigrant labor instead..? Those unappetizing facts are evidently of little nutritional value as far as that diner was concerned...

A tangential outcome of the case was the discovery of how widespread such hiring practices appear to be in the Kansas City area. In January of this year it was reported that Singh "reportedly told officers that if he ever needed illegal workers, he could call most any Indian restaurant in the area and receive help."

"Singh stated that when he lets one of the other owners know that he needs help, he knows that he will be getting someone who is not authorized to work in the United States," read an investigative report of the interview.
....
During the interview, Singh talked about the three people he is alleged to have harbored. He said one of them was delivered to Topeka by the owner of a Kansas City Indian restaurant, whom Singh had worked with during his time in the Kansas City area.
"Singh stated that it didn't matter if he called Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City or any other city, if he needed workers he could always get workers," the document read.