RICHARDSON COMES HOME

TRIUMFant Return For UBC Researcher Deported To US On Old Drug Charges

A senior researcher at UBC's TRIUMF laboratory returned home this weekend
after serving a nine-month prison sentence for a crime he committed over 30
years ago.

Allen Richardson, whose legal name is Christopher Peristein, was arrested
in 1970 in New York for selling $20-worth of LSD to an undercover police
officer. Nineteen at the time, Richardson received a four-year sentence,
and was sent to Attica State Prison.

Richardson escaped from prison and crossed into Canada, where he was
sheltered by an anti-war group. It is believed he obtained a false
passport with the name 'Allen Richardson,' and lived in Canada until 1998,
when an informant notified American authorities that Richardson was living
in Canada.

Richardson was arrested by the RCMP, and deported to the US, where he
served a seven-month term in New York's medium-security Woodbourne
Correctional Facility.

Back in Canada, Richardson is now preparing his request to stay in the
country. In a hearing this Friday, Richardson will go before the
Immigration and Refugee Board to appeal the rejection of a sponsorship
application filed by his wife a year and a half ago.

While Richardson's request would ordinarily be denied because of his
criminal record, exceptions can be made, according to his lawyer.

"If the appeal decision of the Immigration and Refugee Board deems it a
worthy enough case, they can allow them to become a permanent resident of
Canada, notwithstanding the fact that he is criminally inadmissible,"
explained Richardson's immigration lawyer, Aleksandar Stojicevic.

Stojicevic expressed optimism about the hearing.

"The likelihood of success is probably better than 90 per cent. And as his
lawyer, I don't say that lightly," he said. "There's overwhelming
humanitarian and compassion considerations here...It's something he did 30
years ago," he said.

Stojicevic criticised the events that led to Richardson's four-year
sentence in 1970, and spoke highly of the him.

"Here, he's really led pretty close to an exemplary life: director of the
West Van SPCA, he's had a steady job at UBC for the past 20 years."

From 1982 until his arrest, Richardson worked as a senior technical
researcher at UBC's TRIUMF, Canada's national laboratory of particle and
nuclear physics.

"It was a surprise when he was taken out of here," said Jim Hanlon,
TRIUMF's manager of human resources and administration. "And we didn't know
he was working under an assumed identity, that was a surprise."

Hanlon says that Richardson's job at TRIUMF is still waiting for him.

"We don't have an exact date when he's coming back, but we've got a
position open for him here."

Richardson was unavailable for comment at press time.