Drug Dealing Boricua Sick in DR Jail

[Ecuajey]

Laura Hernandez facing health problems in jail

Tuesday, October 8th, 2002.

SANTO DOMINGO (AP) – Puerto Rican television personality Laura Hernandez is facing health problems in El Seibo jail, where she has been imprisoned for allegedly trafficking drugs.

One of her lawyers, Simon Fortuna Montilla, said Tuesday that the entertainment television reporter, implicated by Dominican Republic authorities in a shipment of 70 kilograms of cocaine seized in the republic, exhibited problems that required medical attention.

"Laura had some discomfort, which is why the General Prisons Office sent her to a specialist,” the lawyer explained.

Fortuna Montilla said he does not know of the doctor’s report but assured that the complaint is about the type of food eaten by Hernandez, who should be on a special diet because of the hernia in her esophagus that she has had for a while.

The district attorney for the province of La Altagracia, Ismael Taveras, confirmed that a petition from Hernandez’s family for Laura to be transferred to a private hospital was denied.

He explained that the Dominican Republic’s laws establish that inmates must be treated in state hospital centers.

Taveras also said the Puerto Rican reporter, her husband Marcos Irizarry, and the other six accused of trafficking cocaine made great contradictory interrogations.

The alleged contradictions are contained in a massive, 800-page report by the General Drug Control Office against the Puerto Rican group. The dossier was given to the judge.

Fortuna Montilla assured that "Laura has always been coherent, has spoken the truth, and has never been involved in drug trafficking, and there are no evidence that compromise her."