furie
09-10-2002, 07:38 AM
Sep 9, 2002 6:02 pm US/Eastern
(1010 WINS)-NEW YORK - Adelaide Abankwah's story about threats of genital mutilation in rural Ghana once sounded so harrowing she won the sympathy of politicians and celebrities alike.
But authorities now allege the self-described tribal princess has a different problem: Her real name is Regina Norman Danson and her story was a hoax.
Danson, 33, of Manhattan, was arrested Monday on federal charges of making up the tale to obtain political asylum. She pleaded innocent at arraignment in Brooklyn and was expected to be released on $200,000 bond.
An indictment charges Danson with trying to use a doctored passport to enter the United States on March 29, 1997, then making a series of false statements at an immigration hearing.
Danson's attorney, Kenneth Montgomery, told reporters that his client's plight was real.
"She told the truth," he said.
The woman had requested asylum after being arrested for trying to enter the country with the falsified passport at John F. Kennedy International Airport. She was sent to a detention facility in Queens, where she remained for two years.
At her asylum hearing, Danson claimed that, as a "queen mother" in waiting, she had violated tribal law by losing her virginity, court papers said. If forced to return to Ghana, tribal elders would punish her by cutting her clitoris, she told an immigration judge.
The elders "may circumcise me, and maybe, if they are very angry, they may kill me," she said.
The judge denied Danson's asylum application, noting that Ghana had outlawed female genital mutilation in 1994 and that her identity was in doubt. But the decision was reversed by an appeals court in 1999, after she attracted the support of feminist Gloria Steinem, actress Julia Roberts and then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"I pray no one else will ever have to suffer the way I did for my freedom," the woman told reporters when she was released.
In 2000, The Washington Post reported that an Immigration and Naturalization Service investigation had concluded that Danson's story was a fabrication and that she was a former Ghanaian hotel worker who assumed the identity of another woman named Adelaide Abankwah.
The Post, citing unnamed officials, said the Justice Department was reluctant to respond to INS demands to prosecute Danson for fear of embarrassing her prominent supporters.
The indictment against Danson was filed on Friday -- a few days before a statute of limitations would have run out on perjury and false-statement charges.
Federal prosecutors in New York declined to comment on the delay.
If convicted, Danson could face up to 10 years in prison and deportation. A trial date was set for Nov. 11.
See, what I don't understand is, why prosecute? She may or may not have lied about the genital mutilation, but she DID lie about her name. An alien with no status perjured herself. Automatic grounds for deportation. The reason she spent two years in a holding facility is because bullshit delays like this. she lied, goodbye. Next!
<img src="http://tseery.homestead.com/files/surfersea.jpg" width=300 height=100>
<marquee behavior="alternate"><a href="aim:goim?screenname=furie1335&message=You_are_Number_6">IM:Furie1335
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<marquee>Faith is believing what you know isn't true" Arthur C. Clarke
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This message was edited by furie on 9-10-02 @ 11:45 AM
(1010 WINS)-NEW YORK - Adelaide Abankwah's story about threats of genital mutilation in rural Ghana once sounded so harrowing she won the sympathy of politicians and celebrities alike.
But authorities now allege the self-described tribal princess has a different problem: Her real name is Regina Norman Danson and her story was a hoax.
Danson, 33, of Manhattan, was arrested Monday on federal charges of making up the tale to obtain political asylum. She pleaded innocent at arraignment in Brooklyn and was expected to be released on $200,000 bond.
An indictment charges Danson with trying to use a doctored passport to enter the United States on March 29, 1997, then making a series of false statements at an immigration hearing.
Danson's attorney, Kenneth Montgomery, told reporters that his client's plight was real.
"She told the truth," he said.
The woman had requested asylum after being arrested for trying to enter the country with the falsified passport at John F. Kennedy International Airport. She was sent to a detention facility in Queens, where she remained for two years.
At her asylum hearing, Danson claimed that, as a "queen mother" in waiting, she had violated tribal law by losing her virginity, court papers said. If forced to return to Ghana, tribal elders would punish her by cutting her clitoris, she told an immigration judge.
The elders "may circumcise me, and maybe, if they are very angry, they may kill me," she said.
The judge denied Danson's asylum application, noting that Ghana had outlawed female genital mutilation in 1994 and that her identity was in doubt. But the decision was reversed by an appeals court in 1999, after she attracted the support of feminist Gloria Steinem, actress Julia Roberts and then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"I pray no one else will ever have to suffer the way I did for my freedom," the woman told reporters when she was released.
In 2000, The Washington Post reported that an Immigration and Naturalization Service investigation had concluded that Danson's story was a fabrication and that she was a former Ghanaian hotel worker who assumed the identity of another woman named Adelaide Abankwah.
The Post, citing unnamed officials, said the Justice Department was reluctant to respond to INS demands to prosecute Danson for fear of embarrassing her prominent supporters.
The indictment against Danson was filed on Friday -- a few days before a statute of limitations would have run out on perjury and false-statement charges.
Federal prosecutors in New York declined to comment on the delay.
If convicted, Danson could face up to 10 years in prison and deportation. A trial date was set for Nov. 11.
See, what I don't understand is, why prosecute? She may or may not have lied about the genital mutilation, but she DID lie about her name. An alien with no status perjured herself. Automatic grounds for deportation. The reason she spent two years in a holding facility is because bullshit delays like this. she lied, goodbye. Next!
<img src="http://tseery.homestead.com/files/surfersea.jpg" width=300 height=100>
<marquee behavior="alternate"><a href="aim:goim?screenname=furie1335&message=You_are_Number_6">IM:Furie1335
</a></marquee>
<marquee>Faith is believing what you know isn't true" Arthur C. Clarke
</marquee>
This message was edited by furie on 9-10-02 @ 11:45 AM