This week in HaitiHaïti Progrès
February 21-27 2001
The Jean Dominique Murder Investigation:
Doctor Denies Wrongdoing
in Death of Suspect
Dr. Alix Charles had just finished sewing up the leg into which he had inserted a metal rod to replace the thigh bone of his patient. It had been shattered by one of three bullets fired into the man two weeks earlier.
Suddenly there was a commotion among the two anaesthesiologists. "What's the matter?" Charles asked. "His heart has stopped," one of them responded with panic.
For over half an hour, the doctors worked feverishly to revive the patient.
Two or three times they restarted the heart, only to have it flatline moments
later. Finally, they declared the patient lost, apparently the victim of
a pulmonary embolism, which means a blood clot fatally lodged in the lungs.
Little did any of them suspect how this unsuccessful operation on June
28, 2000 would turn their lives upside down.
An emergency operation
The embolism was not exactly a surprise. For 13 days, the patient, Jean Wilner Lalanne, had lain on a squeaky bed in Haiti's decrepit General Hospital without any medical attention, "without dressings, without immobilization, with serum, without anything," Dr. Charles explained in an exclusive interview with Haïti Progrès.
At 7 a.m. on the day of the operation, Dr. Charles had been contacted by a lawyer, Ephesien Joassaint, to look at Lalanne. Charles was shocked when told of Lalanne's condition and feared the risk of clotting, and hence of an embolism in the lungs, brain, or heart. He ordered an emergency operation. Charles assembled three other doctors - anaesthesiologists Marie Yves-Rose Chrysostome and Gina Georges and an assistant surgeon, Dr. Délano Benjamin - and they carried out the operation at the St. François de Sales hospital, less than a mile from the General Hospital, that afternoon.
Mr. Joassaint had told Dr. Charles that Lalanne had been shot by the
police during a drug bust. That was what explained the two police officers
who were watching over his client. It wasn't until two days later that
Charles would learn the truth: Haitian authorities suspected Lalanne of
being the liaison between the person who ordered the murder of radio journalist
Jean Dominique last Apr. 3, and the man who pulled the trigger.
"It was like being stabbed"
Dr. Charles, 44, is an unassuming orthopedist with a medical clinic in Pétionville. He has five sons, the oldest of which attends Brooklyn College in New York, and his wife is also a doctor. Trained in Haiti and Germany, he has practiced medicine for 20 years.
He felt bad about his patient dying, as any doctor does. Lalanne had received only local anaesthesia, which is much safer than general anaesthesia, where the patient is rendered unconscious. He had been lucid before the operation and had asked about the operation's cost. Dr. Charles told him "Let's get the operation done and talk about the costs later." In fact, Joassaint had told Charles that he would pay for the operation.
Two days after the operation, on the morning of Friday, Jun. 30, Dr. Charles took his car to be repaired. "Man, doctors in Haiti are vicious," the mechanic told him. "What did they do?" Charles asked. "A guy who killed Jean Dominique, a doctor killed him so he wouldn't talk," the mechanic said.
"That's how I learned about the matter," Dr. Charles explained. "From my mechanic. It was like being stabbed." When Charles told the mechanic that he had been the doctor, the mechanic thought he was joking. He had to explain everything that had happened to make the man understand.
But the genie was already out of the bottle. Judgement had already been
passed. Demonstrations were held the following week, calling for the doctors'
heads. "A girl at the hospital called me," Charles explained. "She
told me that there was a group of guys with dread locks who said that the
doctor killed the guy, they were looking for the doctor to kill him too.
I panicked. I called everybody I knew in the country."
The disappearing body
That weekend, examining magistrate Jean Sénat Fleury contacted Charles, and they met on Monday morning. Over the course of that meeting and several others, Fleury, along with a police chief who is also a doctor, questioned Charles about the operation and surrounding circumstances.
On Monday, Haiti's sole state pathologist performed an autopsy on Lalanne's body, and Fleury gave Charles a copy of the report. It made no diagnosis of the cause of death but noted all the symptoms, which were consistent with the medical team's suspicion of an embolism: pulmonary congestion, cyanosis, and other signs.
Meanwhile, Charles' wife was in Queens, New York, giving birth to their fifth son. Charles asked Fleury if he could go to the States to see his newborn. The judge told him he couldn't leave until the judicial inquiry was completed. Finally, after about four weeks, Fleury told Charles that everything checked out and that he was free to go.
At the end of July, Charles travelled to New York to see his wife and son, returning with them to Haiti in August. He went back to work, believing that life had returned to normal.
He could not have been more wrong. At the end of September, Dr. Charles received a letter from another examining magistrate, Claudy Gassant, summoning him to the courthouse on Oct. 1 for more questioning. "It wasn't easy," Charles recalls. "He questioned me as if I was a criminal. He was very hard on me."
Charles says that Gassant was sarcastic and skeptical, threatening him with searches and jail. At one point, Charles' cell-phone rang. "If that thing goes off again in my presence, I'm going to throw you in jail," Gassant told Charles, according to Charles. "That gives you an idea of the tone of the interrogation," Charles said.
Gassant spent the whole day questioning Charles and checking his testimony against that of other witnesses. Charles admits that Gassant seemed very thorough. "Judge Gassant verified everything I said," Charles said. "I can compliment him in that sense. He really did his job. He double-checked each person I mentioned."
The most important element of Gassant's inquiry, however, was to be
a new independent autopsy of the body by a foreign examiner. "When he
told me that, I was so happy," Charles said. "The more they would
make tests on the body, the better it would be for me because it would
show the truth. Then a few days later I heard that the body had been lost."
Under circumstances which are still unclear, the body disappeared from
the morgue, where the Justice Department had it in custody. "No supplementary
explanation has been made public on this fact," Charles wrote in a
Feb. 16 written statement distributed to 16 human rights and medical groups
as well as the press. "Complete opacity has been maintained about this
part of the investigation."
Medical complications
Meanwhile, Dr. Charles had trouble developing on other fronts. His heart was having heart problems. His cardiologist told him he needed treatment in the U.S.. On Oct. 2, Nov. 3, and again on Nov. 17, he travelled to New York, where he saw a doctor at Beth Israel Hospital. He was admitted to the hospital from Dec. 19 - 21 due to his dangerous condition and underwent a battery of tests. He suffers from ischemia, a blood circulation problem. Stress is in large measure responsible for his condition, Charles believes. He is now faced with mounting medical bills of thousands of dollars and the possible need this summer to have an angioplasty operation, which he cannot afford and which might kill him.
Then on Dec. 13, Charles' wife called him in New York from Haiti. She was hysterical because he had received "a warrant on the charge of homicide." His lawyer went to the judge on Dec. 14 and explained that Charles had been in New York since Nov. 17 following medical treatment and still had further tests to undergo. The judge said he would see him as soon as he got back. Meanwhile, warrants were also issued for the other three doctors. Dr. Charles is scheduled now to return to Haiti in early March.
The pressure and uncertainty of the affair are wreaking havoc on his family, Charles says. In New York, his 78-year-old mother, who is not in good health, is pleading with him not to return, as are his children and wife. He also has grave fears for his safety from various quarters ranging from prejudiced "hotheads" who think him guilty of murder to the criminals behind Jean Dominique's murder. Similar anxiety is felt among the other doctors. Drs. Chrysostome and Georges wrote an open letter on Dec. 11 to the Haitian Medical Association (AMH) calling for "the institution's support" in the matter. They note they also received "warrants on the charge of homicide... which is very strong and out of the question and makes us realize that this matter deserves particular attention and a more rigorous treatment."
Dr. Benjamin was summoned to appear in court on Feb. 20, not as an accused,
but as a witness. The way he is treated and the way the case develops will
be telling. "I am going to Haiti, but I don't know what will happen,"
Charles said. "I will be following developments very closely."
Does
the opposition oppose peace?
by Emmanuel Gracia Louis
Most governments face political constraints in implementing their policies. In Haiti, these constraints have become very evident after the defeat of the opposition in last year's elections. Clearly, dialogue is needed to reduce divergences. It is not by violence or brute force that the country can advance. The Democratic Convergence also seems ready to encourage international economic sanctions, to which Haiti is vulnerable.
What is needed, however, is for foreign countries to show solidarity. They should contribute to the development of Haiti and collaborate in good faith with the constitutional government.
Meanwhile, the opposition's attempt to overthrow the regime is a flagrant violation of the Constitution and is therefore an unlawful act.
In a well-functioning society, political actors must at least talk to one another, even if they don't always agree. The opposition must recognize the need for dialogue, and ways must be found, if not to entirely reconcile with the constitutional government, at least to compromise and resolve the present conflict. The fundamental problem is of a lack of cooperation.
In spite of all the government's efforts to make peace, the opposition stubbornly refuses to cooperate. Instead, it very often rejects proposals without even examining them and without condescending to say why.
The most ironic aspect of the situation is that the parties in the Democratic Convergence have done nothing to advance the intellectual development or economic prosperity of the country, and yet they oppose the Lavalas Family's efforts toward these ends. I suppose that the Lavalas Family does not believe that the projects which it has prepared are perfect, but at least they approximate the vital needs of the country.
Meanwhile, the opposition acts at will, without regard for law, obliging the regime to accept its propositions. The unwillingness of the Democratic Convergence to pursue peace and the common good creates a problem, but not an impasse. Haiti must and will continue on its way.
If the present authorities are devoted to their work and sacrifice themselves to meet the needs of the Haitian people, the people will recognize their efforts. And it will be clear to all that the opposition is just opposing peace.
The author is a medical student who lives in Port-au-Prince.
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