President Hipolito Mejia and the president of the PRD political party, Hatuey de Camps, have said that they will file a lawsuit against the two drug enforcement agents who maintain that they were illegally transferred in 1996 after uncovering a drug-trafficking ring involving Dominicans and the former leader of the PRD, the late Jose Francisco Pe?a Gomez. A federal jury in northeastern Pennsylvania agreed with the two agents and awarded them a US$1.5 million each as compensation for the violations to their rights. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, agents John McLaughlin and Cahrles Micewski claim they were transferred because they uncovered a Dominican drug-trafficking ring operating in Philadelphia, New York, and other Eastern cities that funneled profits to the Dominican Revolutionary Party, which they say was backed by the CIA.
Commenting on the court ruling, President Mejia said, ?Pe?a Gomez must be respected, alive or dead. I say those are crooks? Anyone can approach one and take a photo with one and that does not make one a narco, that you agree with what that person does,? he said, in obvious reference to Pe?a Gomez appearing in a photograph with persons known to be linked to drug-trafficking.
Furthermore, Vice President Milagros Ortiz Bosch said that State Attorney General Mike Fisher would appeal the verdict, giving the party and the Pe?a Gomez family the opportunity to vindicate themselves within a legal framework. ?It would be absurd if we didn?t do so. We have to clear his name of all charges,? she said.