Supreme Court Rejects $60M Lawsuit Filed by MD Man Imprisoned in Cuba

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Alan Gross – a Montgomery County aid worker who was imprisoned in Cuba for five years over allegations of spying – has had a $60 million lawsuit against the federal government thrown out.

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that it won’t hear an appeal from Gross, who is seeking to sue the federal government for negligence over his imprisonment, WTOP says in an Associated Press story.

The Supreme Court said it won’t take up Gross’ appeal of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruling that dismissed his lawsuit. Gross had argued the federal government failed to prepare him for the risks of working in Cuba.

The appeals court ruled last year that the federal government is immune from claims arising in a foreign country, which effectively ended Gross’ court fight.

ABC News reports Gross’ release was arranged in a humanitarian prisoner exchange on Dec. 17, 2014. The agreement was reached following more than a year of secret talks between the two governments.

The negotiations over the swap of Gross for Cuban spies held in the United States also paved the way for the beginning of an improved relationship between the two countries who severed relations in 1961. In announcing Gross’ release, President Obama also said the two countries would move toward the normalization of relations after the decades-long U.S. embargo against Cuba.

CNN reports that as a first step in the process, the U.S. relaxed some of the travel restrictions so more Americans can visit Cuba.

Gross’ attorney said his client’s health declined drastically during his imprisonment. He described Gross as nearly toothless, barely able to walk because of arthritis and blind in one eye by the time he was released. ABC News says Gross refused medical and dental care or outside privileges.

Gross, 65, was jailed in December 2009 after he went to the island nation as a subcontractor for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for bringing computer equipment to Cuba illegally, part of a program to bring Internet connectivity to the country’s Jewish population.

In those five years, Gross has lost his mother, the vision in his right eye and 100 pounds, according to a letter to President Barack Obama signed by 300 rabbis earlier this year.

Gross received $3.2 million in December from the federal government as part of a settlement in a separate case, WTOP says.

Congress Criticizes Aid Program

A U.S. government plan to create a Twitter-like platform in Cuba was dumb and may have endangered Gross’ life and others around the world, Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said at a Congressional hearing in April 2014.

The USAID social media program was intended to popularize a Cuban version of Twitter known as ZunZuneo among youths to spark political conversations and dissent. Its existence from 2010 to 2012 was revealed earlier this year by the Associated Press.

The social media platform was built through secret shell companies and financed through foreign banks, according to the Associated Press. Cuban users were not aware of the tool’s connection to the U.S. government until this spring.

Leahy called the Twitter program “cockamamie” and “dumb in its inception.”

Gross’s lawyer, Scott Gilbert, said USAID’s actions have put his client at greater risk.

“Once Alan was arrested, it is shocking that USAID would imperil his safety even further by running a covert operation in Cuba,” said Gilbert in April 2014. “USAID has made one absurdly bad decision after another. Running this program is contrary to everything we have been told by high-level representatives of the Obama Administration about USAID’s activities in Cuba.”

Gross was made aware of the risks he was taking in Cuba before departing on the mission, said Chief of USAID Rajiv Shah in testimony before Congress in April 2014.

»PHOTO: From left: Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, Montgomery County resident Alan Gross, and Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont in the airport in Cuba Dec. 17 after Gross was freed from prison. Courtesy of Rep. Van Hollen’s office.

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