Couple to Appeal Fine for Travel to Cuba

Attorney Kurt Berggren said the fine was excessive, and he will file the appeal for Michael and Andrea McCarthy by the Thursday deadline.

The McCarthys, of Port Huron, are devout Roman Catholics who traveled to Cuba in 2001 for a vacation but also took medicines with them and participated in religious services.

A designee of the U.S. Treasury Department will decide whether to hear their case or uphold the fine. If the fine is upheld, the McCarthys could take their case to federal court.

Berggren said Administrative Law Judge Irwin Schroeder should have considered a similar case in which the government two months ago dismissed fines against three people from a Milwaukee church who traveled to Cuba.

In his opinion, issued last week, Schroeder said he considered a number of factors, including the humanitarian and religious intentions of the trip and the couple's limited ability to pay a substantial civil penalty. The typical fine for first-time offenders who travel to Cuba is $7,500 each, according to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Michael McCarthy said he feels it is the couple's duty to appeal because they want to bridge the divide between Cuba and the United States. The U.S. government limits travel to Cuba as part of its embargo against the communist Castro government.

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On the Net:

Office of Foreign Assets Control: http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/