Two Canadians who were arrested after a brawl after a wedding at the Bahia Principe Esmeralda resort in Punta Cana were released by the authorities yesterday, Monday 17 June. One of those arrested, Nick Miele, was the groom at the wedding. Other Canadians who had placed charges against the two men reportedly dropped them after an “understanding was reached.”
The bride, Stacey Vernon and nine other family members and friends who stayed in the Dominican Republic to support the two men through their ordeal were scheduled to return to Canada today, Tuesday 18 June. They took their case to their local government, the press and social media in Canada and launched a fundraising campaign to support their relatives’ legal case.
Nick Miele, 34 and his 18-year-old cousin Ben Costantini of Stoney Creek, Ontario, were released Monday afternoon, 17 June after charges relating to the scuffle were dropped. The family maintains that the two were wrongly accused. They had been sentenced to preventive custody while the case between the two Canadian parties was heard in a Dominican court.
www.cbc.ca/m/touch/news/story/2013/06/17/hamilton-dominican-republic-wedding-arrest.html