Cuba deports American fugitive

[Judi Lynn]

Cuba deports American fugitive
Posted 22m ago

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba proved to be no refuge for an American fugitive who was deported Friday to face federal charges in California of sexually abusing a Costa Rican girl and possessing child pornography.

Leonard B. Auerbach, 61, evidently thought he was beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement in Cuba, which has no extradition treaty with the United States. He sent e-mails to friends last month boasting of how he escaped arrest, said Rob Chrisman, an acquaintance of Auerbach's in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"I am in some kind of Paradise here and I'm so safe, it's laughable," Chrisman said Auerbach wrote in one email from Cuba, where he fled after he was put on a federal "most wanted" list.

It wasn't immediately clear how U.S. officials tracked him down, but they evidently alerted Cuban authorities to his presence on the island and he was arrested on May 7, about a month after his arrival.

More:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-06-13-USfugitive_N.htm