March 29, 2024
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Canadian gets 46 days for illegal re-entry

BANGOR – A New Brunswick newlywed whose honeymoon plans were thwarted last month when his stepdaughter told border agents of her mother’s plan to smuggle her new husband across the border was sentenced on Wednesday to time served.

Rene Viel, 40, of St. Francois de Madawaska, New Brunswick, waived indictment and pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Bangor to illegal re-entry after being refused admission.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock sentenced him to the 46 days he had been held at the Piscataquis County Jail since his arrest in Aroostook County.

Viel, who previously had been denied entry into the U.S. twice, faced up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

He was turned over to immigration officials, according to court officials.

Viel’s bride of three months, Susan Helen Harbison of St. Francois de Madawaska, New Brunswick, and her teenage daughter were with him in the car when he was arrested on Nov. 13, but they were not charged.

The girl was identified in court documents only as Jane Doe.

Viel admitted to border patrol agents that earlier that morning, he crossed the St. John River in a boat piloted by his friend “Rocky.”

Harbison and her daughter picked Viel up at a prearranged meeting point along the banks of the St. John River on Route 161.

If they had not been turned in, the couple planned to head to Florida where Viel had a job lined up.

Officials learned of the plan from the teen, Jane Doe, a few days earlier.

She informed a Customs and Border Protection official about the plot during a secondary inspection when she and her mother were stopped at the Fort Kent border crossing.

The girl told the official that her mother was planning to smuggle her new husband, Viel, into the U.S. in the next few days, according to court documents. The girl also alerted Fort Kent police to the plan.

Viel and Harbison admitted that they had been hatching the plot for some time.

Both told agents that they had met two years earlier and married in September, according to court documents. Harbison said that she moved to Maine from Michigan about a year ago to be near Viel.


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