FORT MYERS (Florida) NEWS-PRESS

September 2, 2008

Five to plead guilty on charges of enslaving immigrant laborers

By AMY BENNETT WILLIAMS

Five Immokalee residents will plead guilty in federal court this afternoon to numerous charges of enslaving Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants, brutalizing them and forcing them to work in farm fields.

The 17-count indictment in the case ‹ one of the largest slavery prosecutions Southwest Florida has ever seen ‹ was released in January. It alleges that for two years, Cesar Navarrete and Geovanni Navarrete beat agricultural laborers, chained them up, locked them in boxes and trucks on the family property while keeping them in ever-increasing debt.

Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy has called it "slavery, plain and
simple."

One of the six original defendants, Jose Navarrete, pleaded guilty in May to
five charges. He faces up to 37 years in federal prison.

For two years, prosecutors claim, the family held more than a dozen people
as slaves on their property, if they tried to leave.

Although the case was scheduled to go to trial today, attorneys reached plea
agreements over the weekend. After a halting start, in which documents had
to be changed and corrected, the proceedings were expected to resume at 1:30
p.m.