'A couple of years back, I knew he entered a cult'

Chicago Sun times/June 11, 2002
By Lucio Guerrero, Carlos Sadovi, Frank Main and Robert C. Herguth

To his Logan Square neighbors, Jose Padilla was "Pucho," Spanish for "Pudgy"-- a nice kid as comfortable with a softball as he was with a school textbook.

But to the authorities, Padilla was a gang-banger who liked to fire guns, was prone to road rage, once punched out a cop over a doughnut and, according to court records and sources, was involved in a murder when he was 14.

His mother told a former landlady she was becoming worried a few years ago when her son left the country and joined a cult.

"You never know a person, the details," said Norma Leon, 47, Padilla's former landlady. "He was either playing ball outside or inside studying, that's what I remember of him. ... People do change."

Change is clearly the dominant dynamic of Padilla's life, according to authorities. They say he converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam, changed his name from Jose Padilla to Abdullah al Muhajir, left Chicago and Florida for Afghanistan and Pakistan and replaced his old gang-banger buddies with terrorists in Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.

Along the way, "Pucho" picked up a new nickname: "enemy combatant" of the United States.

"We have captured a known terrorist who was exploring a plan to build and explode a radiological dispersion device, or 'dirty bomb,' in the United States," Attorney General John Ashcroft said, calling him "an enemy combatant who poses a serious and continued threat to the American people and our national security."

Padilla, 31, is accused of training with terrorists in bin Laden's al-Qaida network and conspiring to build and detonate the device--possibly in Washington, D.C. He was arrested May 8 as he stepped off a plane at O'Hare Airport on the final leg of a journey from Pakistan.

"He is suspected of planning an attack on the United States," said David Browne, an FBI agent in the Chicago office.

Former neighbors were still trying to digest the news.

"He was always very respectful and quiet,'' said Nelly Ojeda, Leon's mother. "I've got nothing bad to say about him."

Padilla was born in Brooklyn, but moved to Chicago with his family around the age of 4. His mother had five children by at least two men, Leon said, adding Padilla's father died when he was young. His mother came from Rio Piedras, a suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Leon remembers renting to the family for about a decade in the late 1970s in the '80s. The whole family lived in a modest, two-bedroom, first-floor apartment in the two-flat graystone at 2329 N. Albany in Logan Square.

Known in the neighborhood as "Pucho," which can translate as "pudgy," Padilla enjoyed playing basketball with neighborhood boys at Darwin Elementary School, across the street from his apartment.

Principal Graciela Shelley said Monday some staff seemed to remember Padilla after seeing his photograph on the Internet.

"It's an embarrassment to us, to have somebody that constitutes a betrayer to the country [at our school]," Shelley said.

"He always helped his mother and was a good kid," said Ojeda, who lived in the basement apartment beneath his family for years. "He was very handsome, he had a chubby little face and beautiful short hair."

His face was also becoming familiar to police. Chicago police arrested him five times between 1985 and 1991, and he was convicted of obstructing police and assault, said Browne.

Using different names and addresses, Padilla was in and out of jail and routinely broke his probation, court documents said. Padilla used the last names of Hernandez, Rivera and Rivers and worked menial jobs--doing laundry at the Ritz-Carlton and washing dishes at Ditka's.

Police became aware of his gang affiliation during an arrest in January 1989, when he was spotted near the 3900 block of North Avenue throwing gang signs at passing cars and wearing gang colors. He told police his name was Jose Hernandez and said he was a Latin Disciple.

Padilla was arrested a few weeks later and charged with aggravated battery and attempted robbery after punching a cop in the face when he was stopped trying to swipe a doughnut.

In January 1991, Padilla was arrested on charges of firing a .357-caliber Magnum out of a window in the 1500 block of North Keating. about half a mile from where he was living. He fled before the case reached trial, according to court records.

Other charges include armed robbery and attempted armed robbery. But his most serious charge--before now--came back in 1985.

Padilla was convicted, as a juvenile, in connection with a murder stemming from a fight on North Avenue Aug. 15, 1985, according to sources and court records, which give the following account:

Padilla and six other young men robbed three other men at knifepoint at 10:30 p.m. One of the men was knocked unconscious with a baseball bat while Padilla fought with another man.

One of the victims, Elio Evangelista, was found crawling in an alley with puncture wounds in his stomach. He later died. Andre Boulrece, who was convicted of knifing Evangelista, was with Padilla when they were arrested 45 minutes later near Grand and Cicero.

Boulrece told police he and Padilla fought with three Mexicans and admitted robbing Evangelista. Boulrece said he and Padilla threw the victim to the ground and kicked him in the head. They then went through his pockets and took some more money. According to sources, Padilla was also convicted in connection with the crime, but the specific charge and sentence were not available because juvenile records are sealed.

"It was just one of those freaky things," said Paul D. Bellendir, a lawyer who represented Boulrece. "The cops were just out cruising and saw these guys running. They said, 'What are you running for?' and noticed there was blood on their clothes."

Padillo last attended a Chicago public school in December 1985, when he was at the Nancy B. Jefferson Alternative School at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, said Lucy Ramirez, a Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman.

Padilla's mother for a time worked at the Ritz-Carlton. Known as Estela Ortega when she was in Chicago, she has since remarried, is known as Estela Lebron and lives in Plantation, Fla., a suburb of Fort Lauderdale.

As for Padilla, he reportedly lived in south Florida from 1990 to 1997, but apparently spent time in Chicago during that time as well. He got in trouble in both places. Sporting a tattoo with his name--Jose--on his right arm, Padilla was arrested in the South Florida town of Sunrise Oct. 8, 1991, and accused of road rage.

Then 20 and working at the Holiday Inn in Plantation, Padilla had become involved in a traffic dispute with Victor Lento. Padilla fired a silver .38-caliber revolver at Lento's car but missed, police said. Padilla was arrested at his home in Lauderhill, Fla. He told police he had fired into the air.

While in the Broward County jail, Padilla was accused of battery on a jail officer and resisting without violence, authorities said. He settled all the charges with guilty pleas after 10 months behind bars. He was sentenced to a year in jail, the rest of the term was suspended and he was placed on a year's probation. While on probation, records show he completed a substance abuse program.

A Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Padilla converted to Islam after his 1993 release.

Padilla moved to the Middle East after marrying a woman from that region, said Ojeda, who still speaks to Padilla's mother.

"A couple of years back I knew he entered a cult," said Leon, who also kept in touch with the family after they moved. "I know that because even his mom said it. He left the country. She was scared for him."

In the early 1990s, Padilla traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan, meeting with senior al-Qaida officials last year, Ashcroft said. While in those countries, Padilla "trained with the enemy, including studying how to wire explosive devices and researching radiological dispersion devices."

Padilla's mother has testified before a New York grand jury investigating her son, but hasn't spoken to him since he was taken into custody last month, said her New York lawyer, Victor Olds.

Padilla's attorney, Donna Newman, decried the government's handling of the case, calling it "very disturbing."

"He is an American citizen and has been taken out of our normal judicial system and put into a military judicial system and still hasn't been charged," Newman said, complaining the government has provided her few details. "And I have no information."