Paul Vitti, an Italian Mafia leader, said:  “This society doesn’t care about how you become successful, they like to see you being successful.
     Character, professional ethics and intellectual probity does not mean very much for many.  Some people will do anything to satisfy their selfish ego, regardless of how much harm they can cause to their community, their friends and their family.
     Haitian native Jean Bernadeau, 36, residing in Hyde Park, Mass., is assumedly one of these people.  He is accused of stealing a large amount of money from the Boston Visiting Nurse Association, leaving the entire Haitian community of Boston mortified, except his co-workers at Radio Concorde who find it normal for him to continue the broadcasting of his program.
     For those of you who are unfamiliar with the   ethnic    Creole    radio    broadcasting  in Boston, Jean Bernadeau has always been best known as a selfish demagogue, who has no shame  to  vociferate  his  irrational    thinking over the air waves and show his obvious  delusion of grandeur.  Bernadeau was a taxi driver for the Independent cab company during the day and at night he made a hobby out of rapping a few segments of news extracted from various newspapers, which has given Bernadeau the occasion to build a reputation as a journalist among his fellow Haitian ‘newcomers’.     In a jungle the largest animals are kings.
    Bernadeau seemed to ride a normal life.  He used to live in a low-income housing complex located next to the Boston Visiting Nurse Association on Bradlee Street.  Besides driving the cab and running the Creole radio show, Bernadeau was babysitting an infant for one of the VNA secretary’s named Cheryl Matthews, an act that appeared weird to most Haitians.  This attracted a lot of friends to Bernadeau, mainly among the female employees of the company.     Then things began to move quickly for Bernadeau.  In less than a year, he left the low-income housing complex to buy a $150,000 home in Hyde Park.  He also became the co-owner of Ideal Restaurant, a popular Haitian restaurant located on River Street.  He also became the co-owner of a low powered FM radio station and invested in more than five other businesses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
   Bernadeau, inflated by a false sense of pride and greed, tried to distance himself from old friends whom no longer fit to his lifestyle.  He is now a middle class ‘snob’: a black man driving the most expensive cars, and can barely reply when a fellow Haitian says hello.  He portrays himself like a VIP, he is the wise guy who has the answer to all questions and very often eager to bash and discredit honest citizens.
     And here is Jean Bernadeau, in the middle of an unexpected media scandal as a stupid crook.
     Although Bernadeau was not considered a descent citizen, certainly he did not have the reputation of a crook, until the state investigators and the major newspapers lifted the mask and revealed to everyone his true face.  The news came as a surprise and spread quickly throughout the Commonwealth: Jean Bernadeau, 36, a Haitian national living in Hyde Park allegedly stole $275,000 from the Boston Visiting Nurses Association.  He was arraigned on twenty-five counts of forgery and two counts of larceny.
   According to Bernadeau, the entire story is a fabrication of a bigoted media.  He even threatened to make a lawsuit against the media.  It just doesn’t make any sense for the media to lie.  According to assistant District Attorney Phil Weiner, Bernadeau allegedly stole $275,000 in forged vouchers to Boston Visiting Nurse Association for fares never provided and vowed that he will be prosecuted.    Many Haitians take Bernadeau’s explanation as disrespectful.  Maurice Francois of Randolph, MA, said:  “Bernadeau should not be allowed to use the radio station with the purpose of deceiving the Haitian community.”
      Bernadeau said during his radio show that he was never approached by any investigator, and that he was never indicted by any court.  All the while, District Attorney Ralph Martin’s office reaffirmed that the prosecutor presented enough evidence to convince a grand jury to indict him.  Bernadeau was released but was ordered to surrender his passport and that he must physically report  to

a probation officer every week.  He is scheduled to return to court on May 4, 1999, for a pre-trial hearing.  Assistant District Attorney Phil Weiner said that Bernadeau submitted numerous false vouchers between December 1993 and March 1998 to the BVNA.  Weiner also stated that Bernadeau maliciously claimed that he transported VNA personnel to client’s homes including nurses and home health aides.  Bernadeau forged nurses’ signatures with the intention to commit a crime.
   A BVNA staff member, who spoke to the Boston Connection Magazine, stated that Bernadeau is not alone, other taxi drivers are involved in that same wrongful conduct.  She believed that this incident should raise a competency question at VNA, and it is this lack of competency that allowed these actions to continue for such a long period of time.  In
October 1997, Bernadeau billed VNA 62 hours of fare for a single day.  One of Bernadeau’s pals, also employed by the BVNA, said that another employee who used to date the cabby denounced him because she felt betrayed after Bernadeau’s wife immigrated to Boston.  Her tips triggered the investigation.  She is no longer working for VNA and after reading the article from the Herald last week, told friends that she did not mean to cause harm to Bernadeau, she simply wanted to punish him.
   If convicted on all charges, the court may put Bernadeau away for up to 15 years. ?