The federal government has agreed to dismiss, without fines or penalties, the case against Milwaukee's "Methodist 3," who traveled to Cuba on a church mission without a license.
The settlement was signed by Administrative Law Judge Robert L. Barton Jr. in Washington, D.C., last month.
As part of the settlement, the three agreed to drop their counterclaims against the government, said Art Heitzer, an attorney involved in the case.
Shayana Kadidal, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, who also worked on the case, said it's highly unusual for such cases to be dismissed without at least a fine.
He said his office has handled about 20 such cases, which are civilly, not criminally, enforced.
"We don't know of any other case that was dismissed for nothing" he said Tuesday.
About 100 such cases are pending, he said.
Treasury Department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said the department does not comment on individual cases.
The three Milwaukee residents - William Ferguson Jr., Dollora Greene-Evans and Theron Mills - faced an administrative hearing and possible fines of $7,500 each or more for traveling to Cuba in 1999.
Six members of the Central United Methodist Church, 639 N. 25th St., went to Havana to mark the 100th anniversary of its sister congregation, Iglesia Metodista Central de Trinidad.
But the government maintained that the three violated the Cuban Assets Control Regulation because they spent U.S. money (a total of $150) in Cuba without the necessary license from the U.S. government as required.
Since the Cuban embargo, the U.S. Treasury Department has forbidden U.S. citizens from spending dollars in Cuba without a license or advance approval.
The three filed a counterclaim that the government was interfering with the right to practice religion and had engaged in selective prosecution because Greene-Evans and Ferguson are black. Mills is white.
Greene-Evans said it's a relief to have matter closed. "It's been looming over our heads for five years," she said. "I never thought it would come out like this. I'm very pleased."
"We're delighted," Mills said. "I would love to go back to Cuba, but there are other places I would also like to go, like Spain and Portugal."
From the Dec. 1, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel