CR (202) 616-2777WWW.USDOJ.GOV
TDD (202) 514-1888
LABOR CONTRACTOR SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS IN PRISON AND THREE
YEARS SUPERVISED RELEASE FOR ENSLAVING AGRICULTURAL WORKERS IN FLORIDA
WASHINGTON, D.C. A farm labor contractor was sentenced in Florida today to using crack cocaine, threats, and violence to enslave his workers, the Justice Department announced.
Michael Allen Lee was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Fort Pierce, Fla., to four years in prison and three years of supervised release for forcing men to work on his farm against their will. Lee pleaded guilty to a one-count indictment of conspiring to denying an African-American farm worker his right to be free from involuntary servitude in February of 2001.
As part of his plea, Mr. Lee admitted that he used forced labor on his agricultural crew which picked oranges on behalf of growers in and around Fort Pierce. Lee recruited homeless African-American men for his operation and he created a "company store" debt through short-term loans for rent, food, cigarettes, and cocaine. Lee then used that indebtedness, along with force and threats, to compel the workers to harvest fruit against their will. Lee admitted to abducting and beating one of his crew members to prevent him from leaving his crew. This is the fourth such prosecution brought in southern Florida in the last three years.
"Forcing any individual into slavery-like working conditions is reprehensible and illegal in modern-day America," said Assistant Attorney General Ralph F. Boyd of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Perpetrators of worker exploitation and modern-day slavery will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
The case was investigated by the Miami Field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and prosecuted by attorneys in the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division. Callers can report other cases of trafficking or slavery to the Trafficking in Persons and Worker Exploitation Taskforce complaint line, at 1-888-428-7581. More information about the Task Force can be found at: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/crim/tpwetf.htm.
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