St. Maarten, Another Island Paradise with some serious issues: Gay Bashing Case Lost in Translation?

With the focus on the Caribbean in the wake of the Natalee Holloway disappearance, the scrutiny of events that take place on these presumed safe island paradise are beginning to be a real eye opener. It is becoming obvious so many place you have to remain aware and heaven forbid you need their legal systems.

The latest event was a brutal gay bashing incident that left St. Maarten-Senior NBC Nightly News producer Richard Jefferson, who was vacationing in St. Maarten, was one of two men rushed to St. Maarten Medical Center around 3:30am Thursday after they suffered a severe beating by a group of men who the victims say were “gay bashers.”

However, this problem now is the unforgivably long delay of several days after the attacks took place in the investigation. Once again an investigation into a crime that begins questionable at best questionable at best.

The first suspect held in the savage St. Maarten gay bashing incident that injured news producer Dick Jefferson and his companion Ryan Smith on April 6 has been released after being in custody for 26 days. Prosecutor Taco Stein said that the man “probably went back to the French side” of the island, but remains a suspect in the case. Dutch and French authorities began working together on the case, after an unforgivably long delay of several days after the attacks took place.

Two suspects remain in custody, according to Dick Jefferson, who communicated by email to Towleroad this afternoon. Jefferson noted that “at least four others, including the man who crushed [his] skull with a tire wrench, remain at large,” and expressed frustration with the sluggishness of the investigation, part of which has to do with bureaucracy between the French and Dutch sides of the island.