American Relief Worker Held in Jail in Haiti



by Stephen Kosloff on December 15th, 2010

The U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince and U.N. representatives are trying to extract an American citizen, Paul Waggoner, from prison in Haiti. Waggoner was arrested on December 13; he and Paul Sebring are the co-founders of the Materials Management Relief Corps, an NGO organized in the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake.

According to MMRC's press contact, Nanci Murdock, the charge is abduction, and stems from an incident in the aftermath of the earthquake. Waggoner accepted an injured baby from a family and admitted it to a hospital in Port-au-Prince. The baby died; in the chaos, the family never received the body or a death certificate. In addition to this, according to the MMRC, upon their return home, the family came to believe that whoever had taken their baby had "taken it," meaning in the spiritual sense.

The family filed charges that were thrown out earlier this year. Later, they went to a different judge, who issued an arrest warrant. The charges this time around have also apparently been tossed—at least, the prosecutor has indicated that the charges may be dropped—but, according to Murdock, Waggoner has now essentially "been kidnapped." The NGO has expended $2,000 in legal fees so far.
Waggoner has been updating his Facebook status from his cell. According to his updates, he was in a very small cell with a group of other men, but now he's got one all to himself. A hearing will take place today.

Link: http://www.theawl.com/2010/12/american-relief-worker-held-in-jail-in-haiti

What does "taken, in the spiritual sense" mean? From what I'm reading this guy goes down to help amidst the chaos and now he is in trouble because the baby died and I'm presuming that he had moved on to help others?

At least hes not in an american jail where he would have been someone girlfriend by now. He can get out if he bribes the right person. Usually how this works all over the world

How do you know that he isn't or wasn't somebody's girlfriend ?
Based on your opinion , there is no such thing , man to man molestation, in Haiti prison ?Bribing ... Why couldn't it be different in Haiti ?
Many other Haitians like you and I mainly use projections to justify what we do. If we don't have to blame it on someone else, we compare it with someone else . If it not worse we just accept it thinking that it's not that bad. Nou toujou ap gade Abce lot mou-n po nou k mesure abce qui nan deye-nou.
We need new ways to judge our succes , and new way to learn from our failure.
I feel just sorry for the guy. I have learned ,if you are thinking of doing good to others you need to know how to cover yourself when things go wrong . He probably didn't follow any protocols , jump to the scene, grab her , rush to the hospital and forgot anything else . He should have taken more precautions, like bringing a family member with him on the way to the hospital.

Sad sorry , what would I do if it was my child ? surely the same thing. I would have pressed charges and asked to see the corpse . He should have knew better to return the corpse to the family .

The article said he admitted the baby to a hospital. He should have followed up with the parents and let them know what happened to the child. We don't know the full story. COOLP on Haitixchange knows him and has intimate knowledge of the situation.
Maybe the hospital lost the corpse and since he was the last one the family gave the baby to he gets the blame I don't know.
I'm sorry for offending you with my MAN-LY LOVE comment. I didnt realize you took MANLY love so personally. MAN-LY love is ok if thats what your into. To each his/her own. MAN-LY love you want MAN-LY love you can get.
I will repeat it again. If he grease the right palm he will get out. The same thing happens all over the world.

Offending me ? I have nothing more to ADD. I don't give a bleep about what you think.

Mmmmmmmm!!! mmmmhh! !! Eriliza what do you think ? the guy is too cute or too white to commit the crime ?


I don't think what so or so the father may look like would have changed the situation. It doesn't make any difference posting the face of the father and comparing it with the presume offender . Hope you are not doing it to raise any sympathy or sensibility. This is called profiling .

Eriliza isnt like that. Youre reading into something thats not there. Shes not profiling.

My bad !!! I am trying to understand the extra piece of info that she posted.Is that completed the topic?