As Human Trafficking Case Heads to Mediation, Plaintiffs Focus on Recovery

Puerto Rico native Abiel Osorio Cotto is getting used to the Pennsylvania winters five years after he moved there, albeit unwillingly, because what he thought would be a lucrative job repairing roofs on St. Thomas in the wake of hurricanes Irma and Maria instead left him stranded and penniless.

Osorio Cotto is a plaintiff along with eight others in a long-running lawsuit against the companies that had contracts under the STEP recovery program — also known as the Emergency Home Repair Program Virgin Islands — that was funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and managed locally by the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority.

Defendants in the case are Gerald Toliver, doing business as Blue Water Staffing Company; Thomas Sutton; TJ Sutton Enterprises, LLC; Citadel Recovery Services, LLC; AECOM Caribe, LLP; Bellavista Properties, Inc., doing business as Scott Hotel Bellavista; Leonard Ramsey, doing business as Ramsey Hotel; and Celestino White Sr., doing business as Celestino White Management and Consulting Firm. All have denied wrongdoing.