http://courttv.com/trials/tortola/index.html

http://courttv.com/onair/shows/criertoday/

http://www.nypost.com/news/2924.htm

http://www.b-v-i.com/newslinks/

http://oregonlive.com/boule/index.ssf?/columnists/boule/00/1121_boule.frame


A former Portland street kid keeps spirit in Tortola jail
Tuessday, November 21, 2000


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Boulé Archive
Columnists

By Margie Boulé, Columnist, The Oregonian



The letters take a long time to reach my desk.

Evan George writes them in his cell in a Caribbean island prison with a
fancy name: Her Majesty's Prison at Balsam Ghut, on Tortola, British Virgin
Islands. When his defense attorney comes to discuss his case, Evan passes
along the letters he has written to me. His attorney mails them from Tortola
to a woman in Watertown, N.Y. She is the sister of one of Evan George's
three co-defendants. She mails the letters to The Oregonian.

It's not an efficient way to communicate with a reporter who's trying to
remind the world you've been charged with a murder you insist you did not
commit, denied bail and stuck in a prison for 10 months -- even though the
prosecution has not produced a motive, a single eye witness or even one
piece of physical evidence that connects you to the crime.

But it's a better way to communicate than the phone interviews we tried to
conduct last May. Back then guards listened in and cut off the calls if they
heard a negative word about the prison or the justice system in Tortola.

Evan George is just 23 years old; he spent several of those years living on
the street in Portland. Perhaps you saw him hanging around Outside-In, an
agency for homeless teens. Maybe you walked away from him when he asked for
a handout.

Evan had a drug problem then; he admits he left town to escape a warrant for
his arrest. He says he's learned painful lessons since then. He says he
wants to come home to Oregon, face the charge, pay the price and maybe somed
ay go on to college.

But first he'll have to prevail in a courtroom in Tortola under a justice
system that appears to be arbitrary and dangerous. Make no mistake: There
are places you can travel in the world where you have few rights and no
recourse. Tortola seems to be one of them.

Back in January an American woman was found dead on Tortola. Evan and three
friends of his, vacationing on the island, had dined with the woman a few
nights before. The coroner ruled she had drowned; the prosecutor disagreed.

Evan and his friends were jailed in connection with the death. The police
collected 85 pieces of physical evidence they claimed would tie the men to
the death. Since January the evidence has been sent to labs across the
Caribbean and at Scotland Yard in London. Every test has come back negative.
Even so, in August the men were charged with murder.

Their trial was to begin Nov. 1. "Today" was set to air a story. CBS' "48
Hours" was there. Court TV already had run several programs on the case.

On that rainy Wednesday, the island prosecutor admitted he had no evidence
to tie the Americans to the death. The judge seemed to agree with defense
attorneys who argued it was unfair for Evan and the others to be held for so
long with so little cause. But in the end he granted the prosecutor's
request for another delay, so a controversial new "low-copy DNA" test -- not
allowed in American courts -- can be done.

Chris Matthews is the sister of one of Evan's co-defendants. She was in the
courtroom that day. "The judge said that . . . on the island of Tortola, the
attorney general has the power to indict anyone at any time, without any
evidence." Chris saw several of the defendants wipe away tears, "which broke
my heart. I couldn't stop crying. It was such a shock."

Evan sat down and wrote to me that day. "This is very disappointing," he
wrote. "I really was hoping to spend Thanksgiving with my friends. Here they
don't even celebrate Thanksgiving." By the time their case goes to trial,
the men will have spent at least a year in prison. "All for taking a
vacation to a place with no due process and limited rights for the accused.
We still do not even know much of what they are accusing us of."

Evan has used his time well, according to Chris Matthews. He jogs 40 minutes
a day, he's learning Spanish from his cellmate, and the boy who dropped out
of high school to hit the streets in Portland is now a voracious reader who
is always hungry for more books. He's read Shakespeare and Kafka. He's
reading the Bible. Every letter he writes has better grammar and spelling.

But he's lonely. He has not heard from his parents. His co-defendants are
from wealthy families in the East; they often receive gifts and letters of
support. He's grateful his story is being kept alive in Oregon; he's afraid
the homeless Oregon kid with the drug arrest might become a scapegoat if
authorities in Tortola thinks the world isn't watching.

Despite Evan's long stay in the prison he calls "this hellacious place," his
spirit is strong, Chris Matthews says. "He continues to be the one who keeps
the other guys smiling, and he's appreciative and thankful. I can see Evan's
influence on the others. He has a quality of saying thank you and meaning
it."

Still, there's not much for Evan George to be grateful for these days. The
trial judge is retiring and another may not be named for months. A March
trial date may be postponed yet again. "I guess I will have to wait for
justice," Evan wrote me Nov. 1. "But I wish justice would happen faster."