- BANGOR, Maine (AP) - A Canadian
man who entered the United States to visit his dying mother in Massachusetts
was sentenced Friday to a year and a day in prison for illegally entry
after he'd been deported.
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- Joseph Russell Taylor, 47, of New Glasgow, N.S., was
sentenced in U.S. District Court.
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- Taylor's lawyer, Stephen Smith of Bangor, asked Judge
John Woodcock to sentence his client to the eight months he had been held
at the Piscataquis County Jail awaiting resolution of his case.
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- Assistant U.S Attorney James McCarthy recommended the
sentence the judge imposed.
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- "This is a difficult case . . . because it's such
a human case," Woodcock said in denying Smith's motion. "It reflects
the obligation children feel toward their parents and, in particular, the
obligation a son feels toward a mother who's dying and needs him. What
he did is fully understandable, but as a matter of law, it is not excused."
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- Taylor was arrested on Oct. 14, 2004, at the Calais border
when inspectors with U.S. Customs and Border Protection boarded the bus
he was on. In a conversation with border agents, Taylor denied that he
had ever lived in or been convicted of a crime in the United States, according
to court documents.
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- Taylor was deported to Canada in 1995 after he was convicted
of drug charges in Providence, R.I. Since then, he has been forbidden from
re-entry without permission.
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- His mother, Phyllis Taylor of Attleboro, Mass., died
on Nov. 28 at age 75.
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- On Friday, four of Taylor's siblings and his wife urged
Woodcock to sentence him to time served.
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- "Our family should bear some of the responsibility
for his crime," said Taylor's sister, Jo-Ann Baillargeon of Cumberland,
R.I. "She was sick for a very long time. She couldn't talk, but cried
when she saw his picture. We begged him to come home."
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