marla - 12-16-2003 at 11:40 AM
December 14, 2003, Sunday, BC cycle
SECTION: State and Regional
LENGTH: 1207 words
HEADLINE: American woman appealing 5-year drug sentence in Mexico
BYLINE: By MICHELLE MORGANTE, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: TIJUANA, Mexico
BODY:
No one disputes that Dawn Wilson was carrying prescription drugs in her bag. No one disputes she had no prescription with her as she walked along a
road just after daybreak in the port city of Ensenada.
But how she ended up sentenced to a federal prison for five years, and fined thousands of dollars, is being disputed by friends and attorneys of the
American woman who moved to the waters of Baja California years ago to live a sailor's life.
"This is an unbelievable story," says Terry Kennedy, her longtime partner. "This could have happened to anybody."
Her case, though not unprecedented, is building a following of defenders among the Pacific boating community and, coming amid an Iowa woman's claim
that she was raped by a Tijuana policeman, raising concerns about security in the border region south of San Diego.
In April, Wilson, 48, was heading south to the tiny port of Puerto Escondido, where she and Kennedy live aboard their 45-foot Trimaran. As a boater
who spends long periods at sea, she was carrying a three-month supply of a Mexican version of Dilantin, a drug prescribed to her for seizures
resulting from a horse-riding accident she had during her childhood in San Diego County.
On the highway in Ensenada, a truck in front of her dropped a piece of furniture. She swerved and hit a concrete barrier. Her Toyota was towed to a
shop and Wilson spent the night with a friend.
The next morning, on April 12, Wilson, an avid jogger and walker, decided to make a 45-minute walk to the mechanic's shop, according to Kennedy and a
statement from Wilson.
Wilson said a Jeep filled with Mexican police officers passed her and one of them whistled at her. According to police, Wilson was hitchhiking when
they decided to question her. Officers found the anti-seizure pills - along with diabetic pills she was delivering to a boating friend - in her bag.
Given the large supply and the fact she had no prescription, Wilson was arrested and jailed.
For several days, Kennedy waited for her down the coast, assuming her truck had broken down. Growing worried, he checked with her bank and found that
her accounts were nearly cleared out.
"I said, this is not Dawn. She doesn't buy things with (the bank card)," he said.
Documents from Washington Mutual show a series of withdrawals were made in Tijuana and Ensenada totaling nearly $4,000 over three days after Wilson
was jailed and all of her belongings confiscated.
No criminal complaint has been filed regarding the withdrawals, though the bank refunded the loss. Police and prosecutors in Ensenada did not answer
telephone calls to their offices Saturday seeking comment.
Kennedy eventually found Wilson at the federal penitentiary. Consulting with a local friend, he hired an Ensenada attorney, Rogelio Iniguez, to defend
her.
Iniguez did not return telephone messages left at his office Friday. A call to the office Saturday connected to a message saying the number was
temporarily suspended.
According to Fernando Benitez, a Tijuana attorney who took over Wilson's case, Iniguez failed to present any proof of Wilson's medical condition or
evidence to explain why she carried such a large quantity of medicine. No evidence of the bank withdrawals was presented.
"Basically, Dawn lost her case because she had a highly incompetent attorney. A lot could have been done for her and it wasn't. Now the case is
closed," Benitez said.
Under Mexican law, Benitez cannot introduce new evidence at this point. Instead, he and his colleagues are challenging the evidence used to convict
her.
During an appellate hearing on Dec. 9. Benitez argued that the federal prosecutor's chemist failed to follow the law in declaring the pills a
controlled substance: A report submitted to the court says the chemist visually matched the medicine bought in Tijuana to information in an American
Physician's Desk Reference.
"The chemist was bound by law to at least try to practice one or two or several of the experiments readily available ... to determine the nature of
the pills," Benitez said.
A ruling by the appellate magistrate is expected by Dec. 19. Though he is prepared to challenge any decision upholding the sentence, Benitez is
optimistic.
"Ultimately she will be released, mind you. And I'm willing to, as Americans put it, I'm willing to bet the farm on that," he said. "The only question
is will the magistrate release her, or will we have to go all the way to (the federal appellate panel in) Mexicali.
"I honestly hope we don't, because I'd really like to bring her home for Christmas."
Kennedy, who serves as a dive guide to boaters, has rallied the sailing community to Wilson's defense, urging them to contact lawmakers and judicial
authorities. Her case has been profiled in sailing magazines and on Web sites and television.
"There is a rising tide of indignation building among the many American and Canadian sailors cruising Mexico," sailors Gwen Hamlin and Don Wilson, no
relation, wrote in an e-mail appealing to the U.S. State Department for help. "A travesty such as this can only make each and every one of us feel
vulnerable."
Kennedy said U.S. and Mexican authorities have told him they are powerless to interfere in the judicial system. Many of them point to the fact Wilson
was in violation of Mexican drug laws.
Benitez is careful to stress he does not see the case as a miscarriage of justice, but rather a result of Wilson's misunderstanding of the law, and a
weak defense lawyer. Nor is her case the first of its kind.
"I've tried at least 30 cases involving the same story. Why is this news right now? I'm glad it is," he said, adding that he hopes more people -
Americans and Mexicans - will bring criminal complaints against officers accused of wrongdoing on both sides of the border.
The case comes as four Tijuana police offices face charges that they demanded bribes from an Iowa woman and her husband after the couple bought drugs
at a pharmacy. The 32-year-old woman alleges she was raped by one of the officers, a supervisor assigned to assist tourists, as her husband went to
withdraw money.
"If this happened," Benitez says of the rape allegation, "as a Mexican, as a citizen, as a father ... I would like to see these people out of the
police. I'd like to see these people behind bars."
Kennedy, who can visit Wilson once a week, grows emotional while speaking about her situation in prison, where she has fashioned a bed from milk
crates and sleeps next to a toilet. She has lost weight and last week was fighting flu-like symptoms, he said. She has gone without her medication
since her arrest.
Where the couple will go when she is freed - whether they leave Mexico - will be Wilson's choice, he said.
Kennedy, a 55-year-old Vietnam veteran, said he and Wilson, like hundreds of other American sailors living in Mexico, chose to be there because they
love the culture and way of life.
During their last visit, Kennedy said Wilson told him: "'I love Mexico. ... You can't blame all of Mexico for what happened."'
"She's tough," he said as his eyes moistened with tears. "A lot tougher than most men would be in this situation."
On the Net:
Wow. Get me an address and I'd sure write a letter on this one. What crap!
Stephanie Jackter - 12-16-2003 at 11:17 PM
Poor woman.
American woman loses first-round appeal of 5-year drug sentence in Mexico
Anonymous - 12-20-2003 at 12:08 PM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20031217-1856-mexi...
By Arturo Salinas
ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 17, 2003
TIJUANA, Mexico ? A Mexican judge has denied an American woman's appeal of her five-year sentence for carrying anti-seizure pills without a
prescription, and her lawyers predicted Wednesday that it will take at least three more months before a federal appeals court ? her last chance ? will
hear the case.
Dawn Wilson, 48, who hoped to be out of jail by Christmas, will instead remain at a prison in the port city of Ensenada while her attorney, Fernando
Benitez, appeals her case based on what he says are deficiencies in experts' identification of the pills.
"This is the worst nightmare of my life," Wilson told reporters by telephone from jail. "Not even the movies come close to depicting what you go
through in prison."
At a news conference organized by Benitez, Wilson said food and water at the Mexican jail were unfit for consumption, and that prisoners had to buy
supplies in order to survive.
Benitez was notified Tuesday of the appeals court ruling, which upheld Wilson's sentence and dismissed arguments that a prosecution expert had not run
any chemical tests to confirm the identity of the pills Wilson was carrying.
Fellow defense lawyer Jose Manuel Ramirez Bilbao said that "the judge in the first appeals court ruled basically on procedural, not substantive issues
... but in the second appeal we will stress that the expert's report does not meet the requirements of Mexican law."
In April, Wilson was heading south to the southern Mexico port of Puerto Escondido, where she and her partner live aboard their 45-foot Trimaran boat.
As a boater who spends long periods at sea, she was carrying a three-month supply of a Mexican version of Dilantin, a drug prescribed to her for
seizures resulting from a horse-riding accident she had during her childhood in San Diego County.
According to police, Wilson was hitchhiking near Ensenada when they decided to question her. Officers found the anti-seizure pills ? along with
diabetic pills she was delivering to a boating friend ? in her bag. Given the large supply and the fact she had no prescription, Wilson was arrested
and jailed.
During an appellate hearing on Dec. 9., Benitez argued that the federal prosecutor's chemist failed to follow the law in declaring the pills a
controlled substance.
A report submitted to the court says the chemist visually matched the medicine bought in Tijuana to information in an American Physician's Desk
Reference.
"The chemist was bound by law to at least try to practice one or two or several of the experiments readily available ... to determine the nature of
the pills," Benitez said.
Americans often run risks by buying cheaper versions of prescription drugs at Tijuana's plethora of loosely-regulated pharmacies. But few have
suffered legal repercussions as serious as Wilson's.
In prison, Wilson has fashioned a bed from milk crates and sleeps next to a toilet. She has lost weight and last week was fighting flu-like symptoms.
She has gone without her medication since her arrest.
Asked about her plight, Wilson said "I spend my time trying not to think about it."
http://www.dawnwilson.com
American woman awaits appeal of Mexican drug sentence
Anonymous - 3-28-2004 at 11:06 PM
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/2004...
By MICHELLE MORGANTE
ENSENADA, Mexico --
It was a craving for freedom that compelled Dawn Wilson to settle in Mexico, to the limited extent any sea-loving sailor ever settles down.
"I've always liked it. I felt the freedom of it, the lack of structure as far as laws go," said the 48-year-old woman with untamed light brown hair.
Now, as she speaks from behind three layers of metal screening at a state prison in Ensenada, Wilson herself is surprised she still can laugh at the
irony of it all.
On April 12, 2003, the San Diego County native was picked up by Ensenada police as she walked toward her pickup in this port town, intending to drive
down the Baja peninsula to the boat she calls her home.
She carried three months' worth of dilantin, an anti-seizure medication. Given the large amount of pills she had, and the fact she carried no
prescription for the barbituate-related drug, a Mexican court convicted her of possessing a controlled substance with the intent to distribute it. She
was sentenced to five years in prison.
"I look back on it and I see a lot of coincidences that went wrong for me," Wilson said recently in her first jailhouse interview with an American
reporter. "Definitely, if I could go back ... I would do everything different, every single thing different. But I can't do that."
Fernando Benitez, the Tijuana attorney leading Wilson's defense, maintains that Wilson's case is a cautionary tale for Americans who buy
pharmaceuticals in Mexico to take advantage of substantially cheaper prices.
Though Mexican pharmacists are supposed to require proof of prescriptions for legally controlled substances, the law is not always followed. Wilson
maintains she bought her dilantin without having to show a prescription.
Liza Davis, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, said Americans who are caught with pharmaceuticals often are surprised they're violating
Mexican law. Currently, about 200 Americans are serving prison terms in Baja California state for a variety of drug charges, Davis said.
"I think Americans need to realize ... that this is a sovereign country with its own laws," Davis said. "That's a lesson many, many Americans forget."
Scores of pharmacies, English-language signs in their windows hawking popular pain killers and diet pills, line the main drags in tourist towns such
as Ensenada, Rosarito and Tijuana. Certainly, most purchases go smoothly, but problems are not unusual - either when Americans try to bring drugs back
across the border, or when they are stopped by Mexican authorities.
A common scam reported to the U.S. Consulate involves police officers approaching foreigners outside pharmacies and demanding bribes, Davis said.
Last fall, an Iowa woman claimed she and her husband were detained by Tijuana police after buying drugs at a pharmacy and that she was raped when her
husband left to withdraw bribe money. Charges against the officers are pending.
Wilson contends that after she was arrested, the bank and credit cards in the purse she handed over to police were used to withdraw about $4,000 from
automatic teller machines in Tijuana and Ensenada.
Wilson and Benitez say it was an unfortunate series of events that landed her in jail: a highway closure that forced her to pass through Ensenada; a
minor accident with her pickup that caused her to spend the night there; her failure to carry her prescription with her; and then a series of defense
errors made by her first attorney, Rogelio Iniguez.
Iniguez, a private lawyer hired by Wilson, failed to provide proof of her medical condition or need to take dilantin at her trial even though Wilson's
fiance, Terry Kennedy, contends he provided him with the records.
Iniguez did not return several messages left at his Ensenada office seeking comment.
Records from a San Diego hospital provided to The Associated Press show Wilson was diagnosed as having a "miniseizure" disorder in 2002 and was
prescribed dilantin. She said the seizures are the lingering effect of a childhood horse-riding injury.
Under Mexican law, such evidence can no longer be considered in Wilson's defense because it was not presented during her initial trial, according to
Benitez.
Wilson has lost two appeals of her conviction and now is pinning hope on one final challenge before a constitutional-review panel in Mexicali. Her
lawyers say Wilson's rights were violated because prosecutors failed to conduct the chemical testing required by law to prove the pills were a
controlled substance.
The judicial panel is expected to issue its ruling in the next few weeks. Of the three appeals made so far, Benitez said, "this is by far the best
one."
Wilson says she is optimistic, but not overly so.
"I always have hope, but I won't let myself dwell on it because I've had too many disappointments already," she said.
Benitez has prepared two fallback plans in case the constitutional challenge fails: a deal that could reduce the seriousness of Wilson's crime and cut
her sentence; or transferring her to a California prison where she might qualify for early release.
As she awaits a ruling, Wilson says she is adjusting as best she can to life in prison. Initially she lacked even basic necessities, but over the year
has bought blankets, a mattress and other goods from prisoners.
"I'm pretty comfortable. I even have a pillow, which is a big luxury," she said.
She has gone without her medication since her arrest, and said she has suffered several mild seizures. Last month, she broke her right hand while
playing softball and may now require surgery to have it correctly set.
She spends her days on chores, writing about her life behind bars, teaching English to other inmates and reading spiritual and self-help books. She
trusts that there is a purpose to her imprisonment.
"I have a real belief that there is a reason that I'm here, that I'm still here, and that it will be revealed to me in the future," she said.
Asked about her plans for life after prison, Wilson begins to talk of returning to the ocean, but her voice starts to choke with emotion and she
switches tracks.
"Talking about the future is kind of bittersweet," she said.
Wilson has lived in Mexico for nearly 30 years and she may decide to remain here, she said.
In her opinion, Mexico's legal system "has a lot to be desired." But, she said, Americans who choose to live here should understand that things work
differently.
"That's the beauty of Mexico, too, because they don't have the strict laws that they have in the States," she said. "But they worked against me in
this situation."
I'm glad to finally hear something in her own words. - Stephanie
Stephanie Jackter - 3-29-2004 at 01:44 AM
Anonymous - 6-12-2004 at 06:02 PM
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/9625964p-105493...
By Marjie Lundstrom
June 12, 2004
Who will fight for Dawn Marie Wilson?
For a while this week, it appeared her long and terrifying ordeal might be over. It seemed almost certain the 49-year-old San Diego woman sentenced to
five years in a Mexican prison for carrying prescription drugs would finally win her freedom.
She did not.
In a stunning development, a Mexican appeals court rejected her challenge - her last stop in that country's judicial system, effectively sealing her
five-year prison term.
So I ask now: How can we abandon this woman, this sea-loving adventurer caught up in an international nightmare? How can we let most of our elected
officials ignore the plight of a U.S. citizen and California native, locked in a filthy federal prison in Ensenada with a broken hand and a withering
spirit?
Who will get to work and get this woman home?
"Five years for this is just ridiculous, especially in a foreign country," said U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, the sole elected official who has
personally gotten involved in the case and tried to help Wilson, who doesn't even live in his district. "Our government ought to be there arguing for
her.
"It's just unacceptable our own citizens are not getting that kind of advocacy."
Wilson was arrested in April 2003 after Mexican police happened to stop her as she walked along a road in Ensenada following a minor traffic accident.
Wilson, who had been living on a boat in Mexico with her fiance, Terry Kennedy, was carrying a three-month supply of Dilantin to control her seizures,
she and Kennedy have steadfastly maintained.
Though she had a U.S. prescription, she stocked up on the Mexican version of the drug at a Tijuana pharmacy because it was much cheaper - and she
would be adequately supplied for the weeks at sea aboard the couple's 45-foot trimaran.
Mistake.
When police stopped her, they also found three bottles of diabetes medication she had agreed to deliver to her ex-husband. She was not carrying any
prescriptions.
What followed is a dizzying account of corrupt police, stolen credit cards, a Mexican lawyer who appeared to put on no defense and a so-called
confession written in Spanish she says she was coerced into signing after being told it was for her release.
The bottom line: A woman who never had a single previous brush with the law was slapped with a five-year federal prison term for illegal possession of
drugs. According to her new lawyer, her crime was in carrying a large supply without a Mexican doctor's prescription.
Dawn Wilson is apparently being made "an example," as some Mexican jurisdictions crack down on Americans and other foreigners who travel into the
country to buy cheap prescription drugs.
The U.S. State Department has strongly warned against this, saying in an advisory that "Mexican public health laws concerning controlled medication
are unclear and often enforced selectively."
But Kennedy felt sure the absurdity of locking up his "lady" for five years over anti-seizure medication would come through to the judges, and she
would be set free. The hearing this week was, judicially anyway, her last chance for freedom. As of Friday, the ruling hadn't been finalized - "There
still is a chance," her attorney wrote Kennedy - but the outlook is grim.
Kennedy is devastated.
"And all over what?" he said, his voice breaking. "She didn't try to assassinate President Fox. She had more prescription drugs than they say is
allowed in Mexico. It's a joke, it's a damn sick joke.
"There are heavy-duty drug dealers coming and going out of that prison with impunity. And she's sitting there because she's an American."
She's also sitting there with a broken hand, smashed in a prison baseball game. With spotty medical care at the federal prison in Ensenada - she must
buy her own water and other supplies - she has wrapped her crippled right hand in a T-shirt and remains in considerable pain, he said. She had to pay
for her own X-ray.
And, he said, she is not receiving her anti-seizure medication - despite a letter last year from the U.S. consul general in Mexico to California Sen.
Barbara Boxer, assuring the senator that "the medication is being distributed to her as prescribed."
The letter from Consul General David C. Stewart also told Boxer that "the Consulate has no authority to interfere in the Mexican judicial system."
That's pretty much what Kennedy's and Wilson's supporters have been hearing from elected officials for over a year now - a steady diet of
it's-not-my-department and we-can't-intervene.
"It's sickening," said friend and fellow boater Vern Clinton of Auburn, who met Wilson in Mexico in the early 1980s and has constructed a Web site
devoted to her case ( http://www.dawnwilson.com ). "I don't think there's a lot of votes in helping someone who's been arrested on drug charges in Mexico."
Since her arrest, Kennedy alone has written countless letters and e-mails to public officials, appealing repeatedly to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and
first lady Maria Shriver. ("I figured maybe she could put an elbow in his ribs," he said.)
He has contacted embassy officials, both U.S. senators from California, numerous congressional representatives, Amnesty International - even President
Bush.
Nothing.
I called some of these elected officials this week about her case, getting pretty much the same response Kennedy got (when he got one): It's out of my
hands. It's Mexico's case.
A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, who represents Kennedy and Wilson when they reside in California, said, "The problem is, it's a
Mexican issue dealing with their laws."
A Schwarzenegger spokeswoman said the Governor's Office doesn't have sufficient detail about the case, and that this kind of matter is more typically
the province of the U.S. State Department and Embassy.
A spokesman for Sen. Dianne Feinstein dug out the correspondence from last year and said, "We are reviewing the case."
Only Filner said flat-out he would actively fight on. He has heard these stories before about Americans' treatment in Mexico, and has had some success
in intervening. It was Filner who helped the couple find a new Mexican legal team after their first lawyer collected their money and bungled the case.
He began working his network, in this country and in Mexico. In March, he wrote to Secretary of State Colin Powell specifically about Wilson but
doesn't recall getting any response.
The U.S. government's inaction on this only makes him "want to fight harder," he said.
But what Wilson needs most, he said, is publicity - the kind of scrutiny that gets the attention of Mexican authorities. He's considering paying a
visit to her in prison, which might generate that crucial media swirl.
"Somehow, when there's that kind of publicity, the Mexican system works a little differently," said Filner, who initiated a similar effort on behalf
of a jailed constituent, who was suddenly freed despite his case also being "closed."
This is a case we cannot abandon. For those of us who believe her story, it is unacceptable to let her be "an example." It is unreasonable, and it is
unjust.
Pressure those in power. Write, call, e-mail, fax. Give Filner his leverage, his perfect storm of righteous American indignation and publicity.
Let's bring Dawn Wilson home.
David K - 6-12-2004 at 11:17 PM
The story was brodcast on a San Diego news channel tonight...
Margie - 6-12-2004 at 11:18 PM
Bob Filner and Donna Frye are two of last good guys in the San Diego political arena. If anyone can help her, it would be him.
When this story first came out, I understood that she did not have a prescription for her ex-husbands meds.
????
U.S. citizen loses bid to overturn controlled-substance conviction
Anonymous - 6-19-2004 at 07:08 AM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20040615-9...
By Sandra Dibble
June 15, 2004
TIJUANA ? A U.S. citizen serving a five-year sentence for possessing controlled substances without a Mexican doctor's prescription has lost her last
legal appeal, her attorneys said yesterday.
Dawn Marie Wilson, 49, a longtime resident of Mexico, has been in jail since April 2003, when she was stopped by Ensenada police. Her case has drawn
attention in the United States as friends and fellow members of the Baja California sailing community have advocated her release.
U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, also has become involved in her case.
"From the very beginning, we told Dawn that we could not assure her that she would win," said her Tijuana attorney, Jos? Miguel Ram?rez Bilbao.
According to court documents, Wilson was found with a number of controlled substances such as Valium, which can only be sold in Mexico with a Mexican
doctor's prescription.
Ram?rez said Wilson never denied that the drugs had been in her possession, but claimed she was using them as treatment for an epileptic condition
caused by falling from a horse as a child.
But in a handwritten statement written from prison a month after her arrest, Wilson never mentioned the controlled substances. Instead, she wrote, she
had been carrying a bottle of 90-100 pills of anti-convulsion drugs that do not require a prescription in Mexico.
She said she was also carrying an over-the-counter medication for nervousness purchased in El Cajon, as well as two types of diabetes medicine
obtained through the Veterans Hospital in La Jolla for a friend in Baja California.
Wilson's attorneys, hired after the original trial, have argued that she was not given a fair hearing before a federal judge in Ensenada. They said
Wilson, who speaks little Spanish, should have had an interpreter present. They also argued that the medications in question were never properly
tested.
"We believe that there was not strict adherence to the law," Ram?rez said. "While it is certain she was carrying the pills, legally it was never
proven."
After two earlier appeals failed, the attorneys sought remedy from a three-judge panel in Mexicali alleging violation of Wilson's constitutional
rights. The appeal was turned down Wednesday, Ram?rez said.
Liza Davis, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Consulate, said Wilson could request a transfer to a U.S. prison for the remainder of her sentence.
According to the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Wilson is one of 245 U.S. citizens serving sentences on the Baja California peninsula. Of those, a dozen
have been convicted for violations involving pharmaceuticals.
Filner said the U.S. State Department should be taking more steps to aid American citizens who get into trouble with Mexican authorities.
"We tried to get the ambassador involved. We tried to get the secretary of state involved. They take a very passive stance. They watch what happens,"
Filner said. "It seems to me they have to be aggressive on behalf of American citizens, to make sure they know what is going on."