Two years after Emmanuel “Toto” Constant was ordered to pay CJA clients $19 million for human rights crimes, Constant again found himself facing justice in a U.S. court. This time, on October 28, 2008, he was sentenced to 12 to 37 years in prison for his role in a criminal mortgage fraud scheme in New York after being found guilty on all six felony counts against him in a July 2008 trial.
Constant’s criminal trial and subsequent conviction is the result of measures taken by CJA to educate the U.S. government on Constant’s history of human rights violations. At the N.Y State prosecutor’s request, CJA submitted a dossier of evidence to the trial judge for Constant’s sentencing hearing. The judge specifically cited Constant’s role as a human rights abuser at sentencing.
In January 2016, CJA again intervened in Constant’s initial parole hearing. Along with our co-counsel at the Center for Constitutional Rights, CJA submitted a letter to the parole board opposing early release accompanied by several hundred pages of supporting evidence documenting Constant’s violent history.
