US judge who jailed Trini dies at 65

THE JUDGE who jailed Trinidadian Keith Andre Glaude in November 2001 in Fort Lauderdale for conspiracy to export guns to Trinidad died on Monday.

United States District Judge Wilkie D Ferguson Jr, whose soft-spoken, evenhanded courtroom manner masked a fierce sense of justice for the underdog, died at age 65. Appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton in 1993, Judge Ferguson was based in Fort Lauderdale. He was credited with landmark rulings that improved the quality of life for thousands of disabled Florida residents. Ferguson, a black man, bent over backwards to give Glaude a chance when the Trinidadian was captured in a sting operation by members of the Alcohol, Tobago and Firearms unit in Fort Lauderdale in May 2001.

Glaude was charged with attempting to export guns to a friend in Trinidad, who happened to be a member of the Jamaat Al Muslimeen. Although Glaude was not an American, Ferguson granted the Trinidadian bail pending the outcome of the case, fully aware that Glaude was suffering with a kidney ailment. After Glaude pleaded guilty, Ferguson could have imposed a 20-year sentence on him. But he jailed the Trinidadian for just two years.  Not only that, he allowed Glaude a two-month respite to go home and put his house in order before he started his prison sentence on April 1, 2002 at a medical facility where he would have gotten the prescribed drugs for his ailment.

Last month colleagues learned that Ferguson was undergoing treatment for leukemia when his caseload was permanently reassigned to other  judges in the federal district, which ranges from Key West to Fort Pierce. Judge Ferguson was born in May 1938 in Miami, where his father, Wilkie Sr, was founding pastor of St Andrew’s Missionary Baptist Church in Opa-locka.