Austrian killed in Playa Laguna

Lambada

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This does not sound like a robbery to me, if you read the background police are unofficially linking it to the case of the Puerto Plata judge who was imprisoned for extortion & who was found guilty in litigation involving the wife of the slain man.
Puerto Plata Digital

I'm posting it because I'm sure the deceased is known to many in Sosua and Cabarete & to make sure people don't think crimes against foreigners are hushed up.
 

Lambada

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Permit me to give some background to this, which I didn't have time to do earlier. I think there are lessons here for all of us expats in how far we go in fighting corruption, I'm sorry to say.

First off, one paper is saying it was an attempted kidnapping gone wrong. The Austrian & his Mexican wife, (both I understand have Dominican citizenship) resisted the attempted kidnapping which happened around 10.45am this morning. The husband is now dead & the wife had surgery this afternoon & is in a serious condition.
Apuñalan austr?*aco en Playa Laguna, Sosua

Now the history. Three years ago the Mexican lady was involved in a plaint at Puerto Plata Court. The judge let it be known that he would judge the case in her favour for US$2500. She told her lawyer & her lawyer reported it to the Fiscal. The Fiscal's office set up a sting operation which at the time was reported as taking place at Walter's Restaurant on Hermanas Mirabal but according to Court documents was at Barco's on the Malecon. Either way, the judge was caught red-handed: they had tapes of cellphone calls he exchanged with the Mexican lady, the marked US$2500 bills etc. He was fired from his job & prosecuted. The Court gave him a 6 month sentence of imprisonment. The Fiscal's office thought this was too lenient & appealed the case to the Supreme Court. Last September I believe it was, he was given 3 years imprisonment. He was released in Feb. 2008 i.e. last month when his lawyer, Angel Artiles Diaz, successfully produced a case for financial penalties complied with. The deceased Austrian is the husband of the Mexican lady who helped set up the sting on the corrupt judge.

Obviously the police do not think the ex-judge carried out the act of slaying (4 men & a woman are mentioned) but they seem to think he might be implicated as an 'intellectual author'.

Which brings me to the lessons for us all. The Mexican lady did the right thing in reporting extortion to her lawyer, her lawyer did the right thing in reporting to the Fiscal, the Fiscal did the right thing in prosecuting the ex-judge AND in appealing a lenient sentence & winning the case with the Supreme Court. But now the husband is dead & the lady herself in a serious condition. It goes against the grain for me to ask this but............would it have been better if she had never reported the extortion in the first place?

Given the same or similar circumstances, what would any of us do?

More info here:
El Nuevo Norte > Inicio

Supreme Court docs here - I could only open cached version so scroll down a bit
Dios, Patria y Libertad
 

MommC

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I think a lot more people, both Dominicans and Ex-pats

would be more involved if not for the blatant corruption that is pervasive in the entire Dominican gov't and judiciary.

As I said before in a different thread(s) - when has a gun pointed at them and are told to mind their own business, one has a tendancy to do so.:paranoid:
 

Conchman

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I have been preaching about the perversion of the legal system on the North Coast for quite a while. There is a mafia of judges and lawyers operating at will, fixing cases before they go to court. It is totally out of control. It goes all the way to appeals court to the top.

My favorite case is in labor court where a guy who never worked for us, sued us that we didn't pay him, and HE WON! He was operating a concession doing temporary tattoos, paying us a commission on the sales. He used the cafeteria card (never be nice!) we gave him for free food in our cafeteria as 'evidence' that he worked for us (it was blank without his name but the judge didnt care), also the polo shirt with our logo. We had tons of evidence that he never worked for us, but it didn't matter to the judge. He was awarded 600K pesos. Ridiculous.
 
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Lambada

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My favorite case is in labor court where a guy who never worked for us, sued us that we didn't pay him, and HE WON!

Going on the experience of the deceased, whose wife 'won' I guess you should be pleased you lost, Conchman............:ermm: At least you're alive. That is, of course, if the prior litigation had anything to do with this man's death.............

He who has better connections, gets away with more stuff.

Agreed but there's a difference between winning or losing a Court case and being slain. Most of the time I try hard not to upset powerful people. But where it's unavoidable & morally the right thing to do then I will still pursue but very much in the background trying to ensure that any 'digging' is done by others who are safe because they're outside of the country. Yes, of course I'll protect my own skin but that doesn't mean doing nothing. Doing 'nothing' just compounds the existing situation. I think we need to do 'something' but do it wisely.
 
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Lambada

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Given the different names reported in the papers perhaps a mod. would be kind enough to strike the name mentioned in my previous post in case it gets confused with anyone else. Thanks. One name is here for example
Lavanguardia.es

and El Caribe has a completely different name
http://www.elcaribecdn.com/articulo_multimedios.aspx?id=159079&guid=F67D9623903048D39796AC43F8A87FA3&Seccion=64

Perhaps we should simply refer to him as the 'deceased'? El Caribe is saying it was an attempted robbery, NOT what was being said yesterday btw.
 

Berzin

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I am wondering why anyone in their right mind would go to the DR with such a rigid sense of morality.

You have to realize where you are and behave accordingly, like it or not.

And sad to say, Conchman more than likely would of saved himself a lot of money and grief if he would of paid a couple of tigres to take care of the guy who was suing him and/or bribed the right officials.
 

Lambada

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I am wondering why anyone in their right mind would go to the DR with such a rigid sense of morality.

You have to realize where you are and behave accordingly, like it or not.

And sad to say, Conchman more than likely would of saved himself a lot of money and grief if he would of paid a couple of tigres to take care of the guy who was suing him and/or bribed the right officials.

Of course you have to realise where you are but that doesn't mean abandoning your principles. What if Conchman doesn't believe in hiring heavies?

Thanks Chris for taking the name out. We'll get the correct spelling sooner or later, I'm sure. ;)
 

Patrik

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Is DR on the slip?

Gents, after reading your (important and well written) information, you can't get away from the feeling that "life" in DR is on the downslope. (rise in crime, widespread legal corruption, goverment corruption and so on)

If we leave the patriotic pro-DR feelings aside, and make a pure logical and rational calculation - What country in central america are the "most promising" to become a "first world country" regarding democracy, goverment efficency, Justice and economical development?

In your oppinion, what country are/soon to become the "classleader" in Central america for living/retirement?

It would be real interesting and good to have your input on the matter.

Best regards / Patrik
 

Rocky

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Gents, after reading your (important and well written) information, you can't get away from the feeling that "life" in DR is on the downslope. (rise in crime, widespread legal corruption, goverment corruption and so on)

If we leave the patriotic pro-DR feelings aside, and make a pure logical and rational calculation - What country in central america are the "most promising" to become a "first world country" regarding democracy, goverment efficency, Justice and economical development?

In your oppinion, what country are/soon to become the "classleader" in Central america for living/retirement?

It would be real interesting and good to have your input on the matter.

Best regards / Patrik
Nothing has changed except for an upswing in drugs and it's probably still the best deal around, including for safety.
 

Chris

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Gents, after reading your (important and well written) information, you can't get away from the feeling that "life" in DR is on the downslope. (rise in crime, widespread legal corruption, goverment corruption and so on)

The systemic and endemic corruption in the POP Judiciary is old news. What is new and positive, is that someone was brave enough to participate in a sting to make it public and that the sting worked! The fact that one of them was caught red handed is a good thing. I think it will take a few more before confidence is rattled in amongst the POP judicial mafia. But I would consider this progress nevertheless.

Pragmatism would dictate that there usually is a cost for progress. In this case, the price was just too high to pay.

What would I do, was the initial question? (The question makes me think of a similar religious question and makes my mind go in all kinds of strange directions with all kinds of smart ass answers .. )

I don't think I feel strongly enough about POP and area to contemplate getting involved. In other areas of my life I'll jump in both feet for what I believe is right. It is a pity that the couple involved did not decide to move to another area or take other steps to safeguard themselves.
 

Lambada

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If we leave the patriotic pro-DR feelings aside, and make a pure logical and rational calculation - What country in central america are the "most promising" to become a "first world country" regarding democracy, goverment efficency, Justice and economical development?

In your oppinion, what country are/soon to become the "classleader" in Central america for living/retirement?

Patrik, this is a valid question but perhaps more appropriately raised by starting a new thread on it, possibly in General Forum? You'd probably get more responses that way.

Back to this thread...........interesting how today's papers seem to be back peddling away from yesterday's unofficial police theory (reported above) & moving towards 'robbery'. Here's another:
Asaltantes matan a empresario alem?n y hieren a su esposa
whereas this one follows the attempted kidnapping theory
DominicanosHoy.com, Tu peri?dico Digital

Getting back also to question I first posed ............
It goes against the grain for me to ask this but............would it have been better if she had never reported the extortion in the first place?
Given the same or similar circumstances, what would any of us do?

.............what I am asking is 'would we have seen this coming?' If the problem first started when ex-judge let it be known that he would find in Mexican lady's favour if bribed..............what would any of us have done at that point? What were the options........a) to report to her lawyer, as she did, and to get involved in ensuing sting b) to hand over US$2500 & walk away with a favourable verdict or c) to say nothing whatsoever & assume selective deafness. Maybe there are other options people can suggest?

These were experienced expats. Certainly they didn't move areas to protect themselves and that would have been an option when the ex-judge was released, as Chris says. But what of earlier in the process? What could/should they have done then?
 
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DR Mpe

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The systemic and endemic corruption in the POP Judiciary is old news. What is new and positive, is that someone was brave enough to participate in a sting to make it public and that the sting worked! The fact that one of them was caught red handed is a good thing. I think it will take a few more before confidence is rattled in amongst the POP judicial mafia. But I would consider this progress nevertheless.

Pragmatism would dictate that there usually is a cost for progress. In this case, the price was just too high to pay.

What would I do, was the initial question? (The question makes me think of a similar religious question and makes my mind go in all kinds of strange directions with all kinds of smart ass answers .. )

I don't think I feel strongly enough about POP and area to contemplate getting involved. In other areas of my life I'll jump in both feet for what I believe is right. It is a pity that the couple involved did not decide to move to another area or take other steps to safeguard themselves.


"But I would consider this progress nevertheless." That WAS progress, now after what happened it is a huge step back... I usually stick with the system...meaning stick 50 pesos to the cops when the officer says that he is hungry..., pay 100 when I have a beer in my hand and he objects...Now this was 2500 US, but probably the plain was for BIG amount so I assume that the lawyer fees was... Tough one. To bad what happened though :(

They should have moved...yeah maybe, but we do not know their situation. Out of the country then for sure.

Then another thing: Playa Laguna? Still no security?? Lived there 6 years ago and we got robbed. Yeah, we moved...At that time they said they were working on it..."manana, si dios quiere".
 

Hillbilly

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Now do you wonder why people are killed?? For 600K $$ even RD$, you could have eliminated the "problem" for RD$50,000.....no questions asked....

The "deceased" should have been wiser as to who he opened the door for....or had better protection...

Not to excuse the very lousy judicial system in the DR, but two mutts, 17 and 21, have been arrested for the murder of the president of the Student Government of the University of North Carolina. BOTH OF THEM OUT ON SUSPENDED SENTENCES FOR VIOLENT CRIMES!!!!

I think that I am getting too radical....in favor of castration of these people....

HB
 

Celt202

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In a country where 'due process' is at best an illusion you have to be sly as a fox to maneuver the system.

Dorothy, you're not in Kansas anymore.
 

mountainfrog

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Relatively Safe?

At least four different names of the victim and three different nationalities were given in the press.
The usual sloppiness of a rather non-investigative journalism...

Unfortunately two people in Sos?a seem to have the likely real name of K.T. (with only a slight difference in spelling), which also spurred rumours.

We'll just have to wait and see...

m'frog

(However, whatever the outcome, certain people will again say, that such a murder can happen everywhere... and I agree.
Well, it's just more probable here.)
 

Danny W

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My Dominican wife has a finely tuned sense of how to handle situations concerning issues of right and wrong, and I am often surprised by her decisions. Sometimes she fights when I think it is dangerous to do so and sometimes she gives in for reasons of safety when I think she will do the opposite. I have that same sense of how to navigate the system in New York.

I temper my moral outrage with the desire to see my children and grandchildren grow and flourish - that's our way of trying to make the world a better place. Others are on a different path. But it's not a situation exclusive to the North Coast of the DR. - D