Holiday, Chief Prosecutor react
to alleged ‘gay bashing’ incident
St. Maarten--Windward Islands Chief Prosecutor Taco Stein and St. Maarten Police Chief Commissioner Derrick Holiday have been chosen to be the primary spokespersons assigned to give any details available regarding what is now internationally being called a “gay bashing” incident in which a CBS senior producer and another male victim were beaten near Sunset Beach Bar, Maho on Thursday, April 6, around 3:00am.
The two top ranking officials held a press conference at Holiday’s office in a bid to dispel allegations that nothing has been done by police since the attack on the two American nationals.
Holiday said it had been decided in a meeting held Monday morning with Lt. Governor Franklyn Richards and the St. Maarten Island Government that he and Stein would be the spokespersons to address the media on this particular matter.
Responding to a question about laws on hate crimes, Stein said there were indeed laws in the Netherlands Antilles that allowed for the prosecution of persons guilty of committing hate crimes.
He said he had contacted one of the victims, CBS senior producer Richard Jefferson, to assure him that the matter was being followed up. He said Jefferson had called during that conversation for justice to be served, but had said it was not necessarily for him, but for the people of St. Maarten, an island he had been visiting for more than 15 years.
Stein reported Jefferson as saying he was uncertain about who the attackers were because when his friend Ryan Smith, a star researcher for the CBS show 48 Hours, was being attacked he had been some distance away. Smith is currently hospitalised with Jefferson at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida.
Jefferson reportedly told Stein via telephone that he had arrived at the scene only to be struck with the same tire iron the suspects had used to beat Smith, who is said to be at risk of never being able to speak properly again.
Although both Holiday and Stein fielded questions from the local print and electronic media, neither gave details of the investigation except to say that it was still in its early stage. Stein said a crime such as this, which caused grievous bodily harm to a person, carried a jail term of about 12 years.
While the victims had reported their dissatisfaction at the seeming lack of interest in the case by the St. Maarten Police, who did not arrive at the scene on Thursday until the two men were at the St. Maarten Medical Center, Holiday said police had reacted and two officers had been sent to the scene.
He said admittedly detectives had a busy day on Thursday, but the matter was being followed up to the extent that “even as we speak, people are being questioned about what they saw.”
Stein said he had also been in contact with the United States Consulate in Curaçao and with the Department of Justice in Washington, DC, and they were pleased with the progress being made in the investigation.
He said that if the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) decided to investigate it would need to send a special communiqué to his office, which had not been done. He did not foresee that happening, as US authorities were satisfied that the investigation was progressing.
Smith and Jefferson were reportedly beaten by four male suspects who were accompanied by two females, after an exchange of words inside Bamboo Bernie’s where they were allegedly harassed about their sexual preference.
According to management of Bamboo Bernie’s, the suspects were thrown out of the establishment after a bout of “name-calling” became “ugly.” The victims left the club about 30 minutes later and Smith was the first to be attacked when a car drove towards him. He was reportedly hit by the vehicle. The driver stopped and the four suspects got out and started beating Smith.
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