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Snowshoer/defendant wants fewer bail limits

As case drags on, Tanveer Hussain is still living with Saranac Lake couple

Tanveer Hussain, left, and his defense lawyer Brian Barrett want up the steps of the St. Armand Town Hall for a court hearing on March. (Enterprise photo — Chris Knight)

SARANAC LAKE — The lawyer for Tanveer Hussain wants a judge to change his client’s bail conditions so he doesn’t have to stay in just Essex and Franklin counties.

For nearly two months, the 24-year-old from Kashmir, India has been living in the home of village Trustee Rich Shapiro and his wife Lindy Ellis, awaiting the next court proceedings in the sexual abuse case against him. The district attorney plans to present the case to a grand jury but is waiting on some pieces of evidence.

Brian Barrett of Lake Placid, Hussain’s attorney, said Thursday he plans to file an application with Essex County Court to change his client’s bail conditions.

“I’d ask the judge to release him on his own recognizance as he’s agreeing to show back up to court,” Barrett said. “He’s not a flight risk. He’s staying here at great expense to try to clear his name from these accusations.”

Travel to New York City?

Hussain is accused of kissing and groping a 12-year-old Saranac Lake girl, two days after he competed in the World Snowshoe Championships at Dewey Mountain Recreation Center. He’s denied the charges and declined a plea deal that would have let him go home because he wants to clear his name.

Shapiro and Ellis bailed Hussain out of the Essex County Jail in early March, but a condition of his release requires him to stay in Essex or Franklin counties.

“They never had a probable-cause hearing,” Shapiro said. “To this point, other than whatever was shown at arraignment, no judge has ever seen any evidence, and yet he’s under these restrictive bail conditions that he can’t leave the counties.”

“There’s a Kashmiri community in New York City that wants to take him in and would put him up. We have reputable people from New York City who will put their names on the forms. One is an attorney. One works for social services for the city. Just getting him in with people he can converse with on a routine basis and can pray with. He’s a devout Muslim. There’s no imam here. He can’t go to any prayer services.”

Shapiro also noted that no law enforcement or probation personnel have stopped in to make sure Hussain is still here in the last two months.

“There’s nobody checking, as far as we know,” Shapiro said.

Next steps

Essex County District Attorney Kristy Sprague said in an email that Barrett has advised her office that he may apply for a change in Hussain’s bail conditions. She didn’t say what her position would be on such a request, but the DA’s office has previously pushed for Hussain to stay here until the matter is resolved.

“As we could not be assured he would return voluntarily or be able to renter the country, I would not consent to him leaving the country prior to disposition,” Sprague said in March.

The next step in the case would be for Sprague to present it to an Essex County grand jury. She said earlier this month that’s “definitely” what she plans to do but is still “waiting on some evidentiary items.”

Barrett said he would receive a notice if the case had been presented to a grand jury but as of Thursday he hadn’t seen anything to that effect.

The backstory

Hussain’s March 1 arrest made headlines around the world. He and his manager, Abid Khan, had fought to get to the World Snowshoe Championships, and the local community had fought to get them here.

The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi initially denied their visa applications. Some people thought that decision had to do with President Donald Trump’s executive order barring travel into the U.S. from seven foreign countries — even though India wasn’t one of them — since the visa denial happened the same weekend the order was issued. U.S. officials later said the denial had no connection to Trump’s executive order. They reportedly feared Hussain and Khan might not return home due to a lack of “strong ties” to their home country.

Village Mayor Clyde Rabideau reached out for help from New York’s senators, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who contacted the embassy in New Delhi. Hussain and Khan were later told they could reapply for visas and were eventually approved to travel here.

When they arrived, they got a celebrity welcome. Rabideau hosted a reception for them in the village offices. They were given free lodging at the Porcupine Inn bed and breakfast. Restaurants offered them free meals. Local residents donated more than $1,600 on a crowdsourcing website the mayor started to cover some of their travel expenses.

Charges, denials

The day before the snowshoe races, Hussain and Khan met with Saranac Lake Middle School seventh-graders, who had written letters on their behalf to Schumer and Gillibrand. They fielded questions from the group and showed them a series of winter recreation videos filmed in Kashmir. The girl who later alleged abused by Hussain was in the audience.

She told police that on the night of Feb. 27, two days after the race, Hussain kissed her twice with an open mouth and groped one of her breasts while the two were at the Porcupine. In a separate statement to police, the girl’s mother said she saw Facebook messages from Hussain on her daughter’s phone that indicated the two had “made out” and that Hussain had touched her breasts.

Khan told the Enterprise the girl had followed him and Hussain around in an affectionate way during their stay in Saranac Lake. That night at the Porcupine, Khan said Hussain told him the girl tried to make an advance on him, but he turned her away.

Shapiro has said he’s seen the Facebook messages between the girl and Hussain. He hasn’t been willing to provide them to the Enterprise because the case is still pending, but he claims many of them were written by a friend in India who texted back to Hussain how to respond. Shapiro also claims Hussain made no admission in the messages that he touched the girl inappropriately.

“Disappeared in the news”

After the story broke, it drew coverage from, among others, the Washington Post, Fox News, U.S. News and World Report, BBC News and a long list of Indian television, online and print media, plus many media that picked up Associated Press reports based on Enterprise stories. A Fox News TV crew traveled 300 miles from New York City to Bloomingdale to cover Hussain’s St. Armand town court appearance March 7.

In the last few weeks, local residents and people from as far away as India have emailed, called and Facebook-messaged the Enterprise asking for updates on the case. Until now, there hasn’t been much to report.

“It disappeared in the news,” said Nick Gallo, who lives in Massena but is from Lake Placid and has been following the story. He called the Enterprise Friday asking for the latest.

Gallo, a former New Jersey police officer, said the fact that Hussain has stayed in the U.S. to fight the charges leads him to believe he’s innocent.

“If he did it, he needs to be held accountable for it,” Gallo said. “But he was offered a plea deal, and he chose to stay and fight. That tells me, ‘I’m not guilty. You want to accuse me of this, let’s do it.'”

Gallo also said he thinks the prosecution is stalling because it doesn’t have a strong case against Hussain.

“It’s been interesting”

Asked what life is like with Hussain as a houseguest, Shapiro said it’s like he and his wife, who are in their mid-60s, have a adopted a 24-year-old son.

“It’s been interesting,” he said. “I’ve honed my Indian cooking. I dug out a cookbook I’d never used, and we’ve been cooking from it. He likes spicy food.”

Hussain often goes out running with people from the Saranac Lake area, talks to his family in Kashmir regularly, prays five times a day and has started taking English lessons twice a week from a retired college professor, Shapiro said.

Emotionally, Hussain is doing much better than in the first week or two after his arrest, Shapiro said.

“The first couple weeks he was definitely depressed, but he’s smiling more now,” Shapiro said. “He knows this is dragging out, which is frustrating, but he wants to prove his innocence. His mother told him to stay here and prove his innocence.”

Other than an anonymous letter someone sent, Shapiro said he hasn’t heard any criticism from people who don’t agree with how he and his wife are helping Hussain.

“The person (who wrote the letter) said I shouldn’t be harboring a pedophile,” Shapiro said. “Other than that, we haven’t gotten any blowback. I don’t know if people just avoid us or don’t want to confront us, but a lot of people from the village, like us, are supporting him.”

Hussain will turn 25 on May 9. Unless he’s released on his own recognizance, he’ll spend his birthday in Saranac Lake.

“We’re going to try to do something nice for him,” Shapiro said.

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