PHOTO: Defendant Retina Capehart (Left) behind the Correction Officer
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
TEMPLE OF JUSTICE, Monrovia – A 31-year-old woman, Retina Capehart, who allegedly trafficked eight Liberians this week, has pleaded not guilty to the Crime trafficking.
The act was said to have been committed on Tuesday, March 22, 2022 and Retina in person is thereby joining issue with the state at Criminal Court “A” presided by it resident Judge Roosevelt Z. Willie.
After her not guilty plea, state prosecutors headed by Assistant Justice Minister for Litigation, Wesseh A. Wesseh commenced with the production of their first witness.
This is a jury trial where at the end, the jurors will decide Ms. Capehart’s fate.
State prosecution’s first witness and victim of the trafficking, Naomi Z. Koso said that in 2020, she came across the defendant’s sister, Glady Capehart whose brother took his motorbike while in the traffic. Hearing about traveling, he took her number.
According to Glady, when her brother went home and gave her the information, she requested that they go to the defendant’s house, something they did.
The human trafficking victim told the court on the witness stand that the defendant informed her that her sister is in Dubai and working with a company, saying that three girls were needed to go there. At that point, she told the defendant that she was interested and asked the defendant whether she could connect with her sister.
Defendant Capehart responded to her and said yes. That was how she connected another girl identified as Aisha through. Then Naomi was connected and she is said to have been told by the defendant’s sister in Dubai to get her passport, police clearance and health certificate within one week, which she did.
After she got her travel documents, she was told by the defendant’s sister that she should take off from Ghana on the 27th of January 2021. And they left and arrived in Ghana, staying there for one month two weeks. She later returned to Liberia due to COVID-19 pandemic. And when she got back to Liberia on March 18,2021, she later on March 29,2021, Aisha asked her to give her agent fees in the amount of US$500 which she did. And she further asked her to have additional US$100 so that when she get to the immigration desk she settled problem that May comes across her.
She was said to have been taken to the airport by Aisha, where she was told by the defendant that she will be working with a company upon her arrival and she will be paid US$850 and given accommodation, feeding including medical bills and she will possess her own documents.
“When I got to Oman airport, the first thing the person asked for was all my traveling documents which was taken away from her and when she got to the home of defendant sister, she was told to work in her two houses and she said no on ground that she was told that she could work with a company and not individuals but the defendant sister said told her that she did everything for her including her passport therefore, she must work for she and her daughter but she refused the victim narrated.”
Narrating her ordeal at Criminal Court “A”, victim Naomi revealed that she was threatened by the defendant’s sister that if she worked in her house and daughter house, she will not eat. Immediately she started encountering those challenges, she said that she contacted the defendant back in Liberia and explained what she was going through. But according to her, the defendant told her to bear it for six months. But she said she couldn’t bear it because she would wake up from 4am to 12 in the night working without rest.
Victim Naomi added that the defendant continued to tell her to bear it for six months and while in her bearing stage, she started doing other task such washing car, brushing around the house, climbing on the walls, while at a point in time, she was beaten with a hot cook spoon.
After that, she explained that fell sick with yellow Jaundice and asked her boss (the madam) for money to seek medical attention. But she said the woman told her that there was no money, except she took it from her salary.
Following the ill-treatment she suffered, the defendant located her documents in her sister’s room and she out of the house. Fortunately, she explained that she was later assisted by a Nigerian woman who agreed to host her for long, because it a crime in her country and people can be sentenced to life time in jail.
The defendant is said to have later promised to send the money for our plane ticket. But she said that each time she called the defendant for the ticket money, the defendant continued to tell her stories. Then she sent her husband to the defendant’s house, but she said the defendant’s parents hid her after spending five months at the Nigerian woman’s house.
That move prompted them to have organized themselves to start calling on the Liberian government for SOS help, thus eventually making it possible for government to rescue by providing plane tickets to return to their mother land, Liberia, the human trafficking victim told the court.