Overview:
The contested NYC Haitian Heritage Parade may move forward. However, the parties are due back in court in July for a decision on who gets about $500,000 back in expenses for last year’s parade.
NEW YORK—The New York City Haitian Heritage Parade may proceed after a Manhattan Supreme Court judge lifted a temporary order to stop it on Tuesday, allowing a faction of the event’s organizers to move forward. However, the case is due to continue in July to decide the outcome of about $500,000 due to be reimbursed.
Lawyers for three of the defendants, who’ve been accused by the parade’s founder of taking control of the event from him, confirmed to The Haitian Times that the five organizers will put on the parade Saturday, June 1.
“I’m glad that we were able to be victorious. Today’s win is not just for the defendants, but for the culture,” said Emmanuel Depas, one of the defendants’ two lawyers. “They’re very happy that the parade is moving forward.”
Tuesday’s court actions came after a fight for control of the New York City Haitian Heritage Parade threw the parade’s future into uncertainty when the same Manhattan judge issued a preliminary order in April restraining five parade organizers from proceeding with, producing or holding the parade until the matter was reviewed further.
Lionel Lamarre, the president and founder of Haitian Flag Day Parade Inc., filed a lawsuit in March arguing that the company’s board members conspired with the leadership of Little Haiti BK, a Brooklyn-based organization, to take control of the high-profile event.
But New York State Supreme Court Judge Nicholas Moyne concluded that there was likely no codified law that prevented one of the defendants, Glenda Elie, from filing her own permit.
Moyne did order that the defendants not use the name of Lamarre’s company in the promotion or creation of the event. Moyne also said the name of the parade could remain the same given that Lamarre hasn’t trademarked it.
All five defendants—Gerard Cadet, Little Haiti BK’s vice chair, Jensen Desrosiers, Elie, Stephanie Pierre, and Jackson Rockingster, Little Haiti BK’s former executive director––declined to comment directly on the court’s action and the future of the case on Tuesday.
The primary remaining matter in the lawsuit is determining who among the organizers is entitled reimbursements from for the 2023 parade that various agencies have allocated for organizers.
The case is scheduled to resume July 18 via a virtual hearing, unless Lamarre drops the lawsuit.
Lamarre’s attorney, Henry Graham, didn’t return a request for comment from The Haitian Times.
Parade suit ‘heartbreaking’ for public
The first annual Haitian Heritage Parade took place on June 3, 2023, under the theme “Haiti: Mother of Freedom” along Manhattan’s Central Park West. Mayor Eric Adams and Brooklyn Councilmember Farah Louis both led the Manhattan event, which was discussed across the diaspora because of its distinguished location.
Elected officials and the general public have urged the organizers to put aside their differences for the good of the community. Some went so far as to call the legal battle a childish display that put the community at a loss.
In an interview with The Haitian Times last week, Adams said he was disappointed that internal conflict was jeopardizing the future of the parade.
“It breaks my heart, you know. For years, the Haitian community was telling me they wanted a parade in Manhattan, like other groups, and I promised that was on my promise list,” Adams said. “They said that the Haitian community could not march in Manhattan. We dismantled that. And now we’re imploding.”
Adams later added, “In the interim, the need for the parade should not stop because we are having internal family conflicts…I fought hard to get Haitians on the parade route in Manhattan. And I would hate to lose that.”
Assemblyperson Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, the Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair, shared similar sentiments earlier with The Haitian Times.
“New York City’s inaugural Haitian Heritage Parade was a unifying and uplifting event for our diaspora communities, and I hope all parties involved can set aside their differences and come together amidst Haiti’s crisis for a second successful Parade,” said Bichotte Hermelyn on April 18.
At one point during the court hearing, Judge Moyne asked all of the organizers to go into a separate room to sort the issue out between themselves in hopes of preventing a ruling that would’ve caused the parade from not occurring this year. But they were unable to come to an agreement.
“I hope that outside of this court case, the parties can eventually get together and reconcile their differences and in a way to avoid any type of division amongst the community,” said Wilson D. Antoine, the defendants’ other lawyer. “At the end of the day we’re stronger together than we are apart.”
See the timeline of how the parade case unfolded.
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