PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (AP) - An American who sold his construction business and traveled to Haiti to help victims of a devastating earthquake was in jail Thursday as authorities investigate allegations he kidnapped infant.
Paul Waggoner, co-founder of a group that provides medical supplies and transportation for aid missions, was expected to be transferred to the overcrowded national penitentiary, where he could spend the next few months on accusations that he and his fellow volunteers say are fabricated.
Waggoner and members of his organization, Materials Management Relief Corps, said the 15-month-old baby he is accused of taking actually died at a hospital with fever and gastrointestinal distress in February.
At a hearing Wednesday, Waggoner’s lawyer showed a death certificate to prove the baby died months ago. But the child’s father, Frantz Philistin, insists the boy is still alive and his lawyer said he doubted the document was authentic.
The judge decided to open a three-month investigation into the allegations, and Haitian law allows defendants to be imprisoned without charge during investigations.
“They don’t tell you anything. They just leave you in the dark,” Waggoner told The Associated Press on Wednesday as he was taken back to jail.
The case, while unusual, could have broader implications for international groups working in Haiti, discouraging volunteers who provide some of the few basic services Haitians receive in a country struggling to rebuild from the Jan. 12 earthquake.
The Waggoner case is complicated by a broken justice system where corruption is rampant and more than 80 percent of inmates have not yet been sentenced. Many await trial for years.
Both sides agree on one fact: Philistin brought his baby boy, Keevins, on Feb. 23 to the private Haitian Community Hospital in Petionville where Waggoner was working as a volunteer.
The baby was in bad shape, desperately needing oxygen and suffering from days of fever, said Paul Sebring, a former medical technician in Tempe, Arizona, who founded the group with Waggoner. Conditions were also rough: While doctors were tending to Keevins, a 4.7-magnitude aftershock hit and much of the hospital staff fled into the night.
Sebring said that Waggoner was merely helping to move supplies and direct patients, but was not involved in any treatment. “Paul never treated or touched the child. He had nothing to do with the case.”
They say Philistin was told his son was dead but would not take his body home, saying he did not have money for a funeral. Sebring said the father returned at least five times. Waggoner accompanied him, trying to keep him calm.
After two days, the American aid workers say, the body was incinerated. When the father returned again and found that the body was no longer there, he became enraged.
“They came to me and say, ’Your baby is dead.’ I said, ’Don’t lie to me.’ I tried to close his eyes, and they opened again. I closed them again and they opened,” he told AP. “I want to find my baby. I know my baby is alive.”
He said that Waggoner told him he had taken the child, which the Americans deny.
Philistin filed a lawsuit against the hospital in March. Waggoner left the country fearing retribution from the father, but returned soon after. The aid group says it has been focusing efforts on treating victims of Haiti’s surging cholera epidemic, which has killed more than 2,400 people.
Philistin spotted Waggoner and Sebring and several friends at a restaurant on Sunday and called police. The Americans were arrested, though all but Waggoner were released.
The American’s friends said they are afraid about what may happen to him if he is confined with other prisoners notorious National Penitentiary in central Port-au-Prince, an overcrowded horror where cholera has been rampant and deadly jailbreak attempts are common.
Waggoner has had previous legal trouble: He pleaded guilty in July 2008 to assault and battery in Massachusetts and was sentenced to 109 days in jail, according to the Nantucket District Court. Sebring said the charge resulted from a fight at a work site..
The aid group and Waggoner’s family are trying to keep have him moved to a private cell or elsewhere in Port-au-Prince.
“However, the ultimate goal is to ensure Paul’s right to a fair hearing and speedy investigation in order to prove the accusations are groundless and Paul is set free,” the group said in a statement.
The American said Wednesday that he suspects Haitian officials are keeping him in prison to extort money from him.
“I would have liked to be out today. I would have liked for this not to have happened in the first place,” he said.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.