New Times Weekly Working on Alex Pussieldi Story – Years After the Fort Lauderdale City Commissioners Packet With Info on Him ‘Probably Ended Up in the Garbage’
April 22, 2014Quest Continues For Full Story of Alex Pussieldi’s Alleged Abuse of a Swimmer at Fort Lauderdale’s Pine Crest School
April 24, 2014
Concussion Inc. has not been able to confirm Alex Pussieldi’s current citizenship, immigrant (green card), or non-immigrant resident status in the United States. But what we do know is that when it comes to matters of criminal charges, arrests, and prosecutions, law enforcement is usually vigilant when it comes to a non-citizen being charged with a serious crime.
The full list of crimes that are considered aggravated felonies under immigration law (which is different from criminal law) is extensive and may be found in the Immigration and Nationality Act at I.N.A. § 101(a)(43). These crimes include murder; rape; drug or firearms trafficking; sexual abuse of a minor; child pornography; money laundering, fraud or tax evasion involving more than $10,000; theft or violent crime with a sentence order of at least one year (it is irrelevant if it was suspended or if you only had to serve part of it); espionage, sabotage, or treason; and a perjury conviction with a sentence of at least one year.
The United States Citizenship & Immigration Services, housed in the Department of Homeland Security, lists the following as possible “deportable offenses” under section 237 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA):
(I) … is convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude committed within five years (or 10 years in the case of an alien provided lawful permanent resident status under section 245(j) ) after the date of admission, and (II) is convicted of a crime for which a sentence of one year or longer may be imposed is deportable.
The reporting by Irv Muchnick and me has already clearly established that authorities in Fort Lauderdale – the police, the parks and recreation department, and numerous elected leaders – not to mention the local media and USA Swiumming, were aware of, at the very least, rumors of Pussieldi’s housing of young boys and his videotaping of the boys. The latter, in itself, would likely constitute the legal definition of child pornography.
If those authorities had taken concerted action in 2004 or 2007, Pussieldi’s presence in South Florida might have been terminated. His tenure with the Pine Crest School swimming program, alongside soon-confessed sex offender Roberto Caragol, would have been thwarted. The Davie Nadadores and the “Caribbean swimmer pipeline,” so extolled by the Miami Herald and the national swimming media, would have been stopped in its tracks.