7/6/97

A big chapter of Les Coleman's nightmare is over. Les returned to the United States last October and voluntarily surrendered to the FBI. He had spent the past six years in Europe, granted asylum after he was indicted on trumped-up charges, including perjury over an affidavit he gave in the Pan Am 103 bombing civil case in 1991. He is the only person in U.S. history to ever be charged with perjury based on an affidavit in a civil case. His lawyer has filed a motion to dismiss the charges on Vindictive-Selective Prosecution grounds in the Eastern District of New York.

Upon surrendering at Atlanta airport, Coleman was taken into custody. He spent two weeks in the Atlanta city jail before being flown by U.S. Marshals to New York, but not before a one week lay-over at the new federal airport lock-up at Oklahoma City.

Cuffed and shackled, Coleman was shuttled to the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, notorious for housing such clientele as John Gotti gangsters, Chinatown mobsters, Columbian drug mules, and even a New York "Club Kid" heroin addict accused of hacking his dealer to bits and dumping the pieces in the East River. The "Club Kid" was Coleman's bunk mate for a week.

For four months Coleman languished at MDC, while a cancerous tumor was growing on his collar bone, the size of a half dollar. Finally, after repeated protests by his lawyer, MDC arranged for Coleman to have an operation. He was taken to New York Downtown Hospital and underwent surgery. The same day he was returned to jail. He did not see anyone from the MDC medical staff for 16 days. His surgical wound became seriously infected. After his attorney accused federal authorities of mal-practice and cruelty, Coleman was finally sent to a suburban hospital to recover. It took round the clock treatment for 11 days to clear up the infection.

Upon his return, MDC placed Coleman in "Special Housing", known among inmates as "The Hole", where he was confined for 30 days. His nightmare ended when Ms. Shevitz finally obtained his release on bail on March 24, six months after he had voluntarily surrendered.

Coleman had brought his family with him. His wife, Mary-Claude and three young children. While Coleman was incarcerated they were struggling with his mother, living on her meager social security checks and food stamps.