a fiscal who put two American citizens in jail on bogus charges in Puerto Plata (acting as a defendant, not officially) will face the music next week, unless he gets paid off before the evidence surfaces.
- Thread starter Conchman
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the Fiscal (prosecutor) is gonna be in trouble
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I am finding the above a little difficult to understand Conchman!
I presume that these are the two Americans who (according to the papers) are accused of stealing electricity from EdeNorte? Were they not the ones also reported as spraying pepper spray into the eyes of the fiscal? If your comments are saying that these were bogus charges & thereby the FISCAL was the one trying a scam on them, then how come someone is having to pay off the fiscal? Or did you mean that the fiscal will have to pay someone off?? ~ Grahame.
Its been all over the local news, a fiscal claims that two Americans pepper sprayed him in the face while he was investigating the illegal hook up of electricity on a house they were in.
He failed to mention the part that he was not acting in official capacity, the electricity was private, and that he unprovokedly attacked the two men and pointed a gun at their heads, before the pepper was sprayed. He then had both of them thrown in jail, where they are still today (the incident happened 7 days ago), because he used his influence in the courts to have a quick night trial where they were sentenced to 3 months investigative custody pending trial. There was no translator in the court, their lawyer was not allowed to represent them, but they did allow a lawyer in who said the US$40,000 to drop the charges was 'a good deal.' However, the fiscal didn't count on that video that someone has, of the whole incident.
He failed to mention the part that he was not acting in official capacity, the electricity was private, and that he unprovokedly attacked the two men and pointed a gun at their heads, before the pepper was sprayed. He then had both of them thrown in jail, where they are still today (the incident happened 7 days ago), because he used his influence in the courts to have a quick night trial where they were sentenced to 3 months investigative custody pending trial. There was no translator in the court, their lawyer was not allowed to represent them, but they did allow a lawyer in who said the US$40,000 to drop the charges was 'a good deal.' However, the fiscal didn't count on that video that someone has, of the whole incident.
So he wants $40K it seems which is an extraordinarily high number but claims he's permanently damaged of course due to the pepper spray. I hope he doesn't get a penny and is punished for his threat with a gun to their head. But I doubt anything at all will happen to him, video evidence or not, which is a shame really, and I wish the young men a speedy exit from jail.
If the video is to be used in evidence at the trial, I hope they don't post it on You Tube until way after the trial. Otherwise the Court could find reasons for that evidence being inadmissible. Chip I, too, assume your comment was light-hearted. There is no way a Fiscal with his Court connections with the judges etc etc is going to be paying the defendants - that's not how it works here. If the anti-corruption department investigated him, or the AG's office investigated, the very most you could expect would that he would be fired. And that's going some. Hopefully, if the incarcerated defendants are innocent, they are found to be innocent. That's probably the most one could hope for.
so what's all that talking all about??
2 gringos caught stealing electricity?
give 'em their fine, they deserve the fine.
a "fiscal" caught them on that privately??
sounds like a weird situation to me,
since when a fiscal has anything to do with checking illegal electricity connections in person, like a field officer?
has there be some kind of prior trouble between that 'fiscal' and those 'gringos'?
and you guys are talking about a proof video,
WHERE is that proof VIDEO???
i can not see any link in the prior posts,
so sorry budd's,
but just from the written up there i see a typical 'rumors, hearsay, bad fiscal, worse gringos, nobody know's' case and can not do or think anything about such stuff.
what's the facts, where's the vid??
Mike
2 gringos caught stealing electricity?
give 'em their fine, they deserve the fine.
a "fiscal" caught them on that privately??
sounds like a weird situation to me,
since when a fiscal has anything to do with checking illegal electricity connections in person, like a field officer?
has there be some kind of prior trouble between that 'fiscal' and those 'gringos'?
and you guys are talking about a proof video,
WHERE is that proof VIDEO???
i can not see any link in the prior posts,
so sorry budd's,
but just from the written up there i see a typical 'rumors, hearsay, bad fiscal, worse gringos, nobody know's' case and can not do or think anything about such stuff.
what's the facts, where's the vid??
Mike
I can give you the newspaper links, Mike, but whether those are the 'facts' or not appears to be highly questionable.
http://www.elcaribecdn.com/articulo_multimedios.aspx?id=191053&guid=5AB9FD9E42E446B0914040118DE730D0&Seccion=63
EXTRANJEROS ECHAN GAS MOSTAZA Y AMENAZAN FISCAL ELVIS GARCIA
Puerto Plata Digital
El Nacional, la voz de todos
JUEZ INSTRUCCION DICTA TRES MESES COERCION CONTRA NORTEAMERICANOS AGREDIERON FISCAL
http://www.elcaribecdn.com/articulo_multimedios.aspx?id=191053&guid=5AB9FD9E42E446B0914040118DE730D0&Seccion=63
EXTRANJEROS ECHAN GAS MOSTAZA Y AMENAZAN FISCAL ELVIS GARCIA
Puerto Plata Digital
El Nacional, la voz de todos
JUEZ INSTRUCCION DICTA TRES MESES COERCION CONTRA NORTEAMERICANOS AGREDIERON FISCAL
the fiscal was acting privately on behalf of a restaurant owner who's meter they were hooked on. he came storming unto the American's house and starting yelling at them and punching and kicking them, in the process pulling out a gun and pointing it at both of them. That electricity line was a private line from a local junta.
This fiscal is known as a corrupt hothead connected high in the ruling party.
This video cannot be shown bcause it might be needed in the trial. However, 5 witnesses confirm the video evidence already.
This fiscal is known as a corrupt hothead connected high in the ruling party.
This video cannot be shown bcause it might be needed in the trial. However, 5 witnesses confirm the video evidence already.
also, only one guy sprayed the pepper spray, why was the other guy given 3 months jail sentence?????
When there is a foreigner involved they will commonly give three months preventative detention, claiming this will stop the participants from leaving the country while they investigate what happened.
Once this sentence is made it is very hard to get out before the three months are up.
This Fiscal knew that, and got it done before they had a chance to do anything.
Does this mean that they were stealing electricity from the restaurant owner? Another expat I believe & one who has been here some time?
I'm not disputing that the Fiscal acted in an intimidating fashion. Whether he would be seen as operating 'privately' is perhaps debateable. Just supposing they had had a hook-up to the restaurant owner & not paid, if any of us were in the position of that restaurant owner, what would we do? Disconnect them a few times & if that didn't work we would probably ask a Dominican friend with influence to solve the problem. Now if on the other hand they had always paid all their bills, then the whole thing is a set-up. But............if they hadn't...........?
While the two Americans deny they were hooked up illegally, they probably were (IMO), however, the restaurant owner had never spoken to them about this and you certainly dont deserve a gun to your head for this, and you defintely don't deserve 3 months prison.
the pepper spray was handy because he keeps it in his car, when he pulled up to his house after work the fiscal dragged him out of the car by the neck and started kicking him, then pointed the gun at him.
Thanks for clarifying, Conchman. Interesting that you have a few doubts about whether or not their connection was legal. I also wonder if this was an on-going dispute with the restaurant owner. I guess we can agree that they would not have experienced the gun to the head in some other countries. But hey......we know where we live :cheeky:. The remand in custody is just that - a remand, not a sentence of imprisonment. Course, in practice it isn't pleasant & it can feel like a sentence to those who have probably never seen the inside of a prison in their countries of origin.
Good lesson for new expats though that it's always simpler to pay all your bills in the first place.........
Good lesson for new expats though that it's always simpler to pay all your bills in the first place.........
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