http://www.northjersey.com/news/fugitive-nj-cop-killer-chesimard-s-return-from-cuba-possible-1.1309796


Fugitive NJ cop killer Chesimard’s return from Cuba possible

APRIL 15, 2015, 11:20 PM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015, 9:51 AM
BY MIKE KELLY
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD

American and Cuban diplomats plan to begin discussing the possible return to the United States of Joanne Chesimard, the convicted killer of a New Jersey state trooper, and other fugitives as part of a broader effort to restore diplomatic relations between the two nations, a State Department spokesman said on Wednesday.


The announcement came a day after President Obama said he intends to remove Cuba from the list of nations that sponsor terrorism and represented the first significant sign that U.S. and Cuban negotiators were willing to enter into talks over one of the most controversial and divisive issues standing in the way of the restoration of diplomatic relations.

.
But experts cautioned not to expect a quick extradition of Chesimard, who is |on the list of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists for her role in the killing of the trooper during a turnpike gunfight in 1973. She broke out of prison six years later and fled to Cuba, where she was granted political asylum.

Notably absent amid the reactions to the State Department announcement on Wednesday was any response from Cuban authorities. Attempts to reach Cuban government officials at the United Nations and in Washington were not answered.

But if negotiations begin over the fate of Chesimard and other fugitives, it would mark a significant change by the Cubans.

In the wake of the announcement in December that the United States and Cuba would restore diplomatic relations after a 50-year freeze, Cuban officials strongly asserted on several occasions that the Castro regime had no plans to reverse its decision to grant political asylum to Chesimard and other notable fugitives, including William Morales, a Puerto Rican nationalist who was implicated in the 1975 bombing of Fraunces Tavern in Manhattan, killing a Fair Lawn man.

But on Wednesday, the State Department went out of its way to portray the discussions over Chesimard, Morales and other fugitives as a key element in the overall diplomatic negotiations.

A State Department spokes­man, Jeff Rathke, specifically noted that Chesimard and Morales would be part of upcoming talks over law enforcement issues between the two nations.

“We see the reestablishment of diplomatic relations and the reopening of an embassy in Havana as the means by which we’ll be able, more effectively, to press the Cuban government on law enforcement issues such as fugitives,” Rathke said. “And Cuba has agreed to enter into a law enforcement dialogue with the United States that will work to resolve these cases.”

Rathke said the dialogue is also expected to address cooperation on more routine crimes.

Reaction to the possibility that two of the region’s most notorious fugitives might be returned to the United States ranged from skepticism and guarded optimism to a belief that the talks represent a potential breakthrough between two nations that have barely spoken to each other for more than half a century.

“I think it’s very encouraging. It’s an example that these two sides have found a way to cooperate on issues that are very hard,” said Ted Piccone, a senior fellow and Cuban expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

“I’m always hopeful, but I’m afraid to be too hopeful,” said Mary Connor Tully of Fair Lawn, whose husband, Frank, was 33 when he was killed along with three others in the attack on at the Fraunces Tavern, which is widely believed to have been orchestrated by Morales

Connor’s son, Joseph, of Glen Rock, said he was skeptical of the timing of Wednesday’s State Department statement. He said he viewed the announcement of possible talks over Chesimard and Morales as an attempt by the White House to “placate” critics of Obama’s decision a day earlier to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

“I’m not buying it,” Joseph Connor said of the possible extradition of Morales, a key figure in the Puerto Rican nationalist group known as the Armed Forces of National Liberation or FALN.

“I’ve been down this road for 20 years,” he added. “It’s better than them saying it’s not happening. But I think it’s a way to put people off.”

Col. Rick Fuentes, the New Jersey State Police superintendent, said he took the State Department announcement to be a positive sign that the White House was listening to appeals from law enforcement to pressure the Cubans to turn over Chesimard, Morales and others who have found haven in Cuba.

“I view these negotiations as an extraordinary opportunity to resolve the issue of Joanne Chesimard and other violent fugitives being afforded sanctuary in Cuba,” Fuentes said.

Escape from prison

Chesimard, a leader of the Black Liberation Army who now goes by the name Assata Shakur, fled to Cuba after breaking out of a New Jersey prison where she was serving a life sentence for the murder of Trooper Werner Foerster during a confrontation near Exit 9 on the Turnpike in May 1973.

Morales was never charged in the Fraunces Tavern attack. But he is widely believed by law enforcement authorities to have built the bomb that exploded at the tavern in January 1975.

Morales was about to begin serving an 89-year sentence for his role in other FALN bombings when he escaped and fled to Cuba where, as was Chesimard, he was granted political asylum by Fidel Castro.

Governor Christie, who had also called on Obama to force the Cubans to turn over Chesimard in return for the restoration of diplomatic relations with the United States, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

“We owe it to Trooper Werner Foerster’s family and the entire law enforcement community that justice be served for convicted cop killer Joanne Chesimard by insisting she be extradited from Cuba immediately,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, who has emerged as a vocal critic of the Obama Administration’s efforts to renew ties with Cuba.

Reached at her home in Florida, Foerster’s widow, Rose, declined to comment, saying she preferred to wait until there was a clear resolution over Chesimard’s status.

“When the time comes, then I will something to say,” she said.

Exactly how the negotiations might proceed — and for how long and to what end — remained in doubt on Wednesday.

Chesimard’s lawyer, Lennox Hinds, a Rutgers professor of criminal justice, said he had been in touch recently with Cuban authorities about his client’s status and was told that her political asylum would not be revoked.

“I think it is a spin being put out by the U.S. government,” Hinds said. “I have no reason to give any credence to it.”

Morales’ attorney, Ron Kuby, the New York civil rights lawyer and talk-radio personality, said |he also doubted whether the talks between Cuba and the United States would lead to a quick extradition of his client or other fugitives.

“The Cuban government has formally granted Morales and Chesimard political asylum,” Kuby said. “And that grant of political asylum is something that the Cuban government and other nations take seriously.”

Apart from the legal entanglements involved in the talks, the potential political implications were even more murky.

“What you have now is different from what you had a week ago — the potential for a clear and diplomatic discussion over these issues,” said Peter Kornbluh, a Cuba expert at the National Security Archive at George Washington University in Washington.

But Kornbluh cautioned that, in return for the possible extradition of Chesimard, Morales and others, Cuban negotiators may ask the United States to reciprocate by extraditing a number of fugitives who fled to America to escape Cuban justice.

“I don’t know if I see a quick resolution,” he said.