All eyes widened in Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez’s courtroom when a female tourist blurted out that she had been raped in prison only hours before.
The 37-year-old from Richardson, Texas appeared before Magistrate Gomez to face charges of damage, disorderly behaviour, resisting arrest, obscene language and unlawfully and intentionally causing harm to a policewoman constable. On Tuesday, the visitor allegedly created a disturbance so rowdy at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island that the police had to be called to the scene.
It was also alleged that the visitor then repeatedly bit a police woman and caused $50 worth of damage to her tunic.
The accused said she was not guilty of any of the charges and alleged that she had been beaten by officers.
Asked when she was originally planning to leave The Bahamas, she shocked the court with the response: “I was supposed to leave on the 20th (of July) but after I was raped this morning in jail, I want to leave immediately.”
Police officials said that after the visitor reported the rape she was strongly advised to have a check up and submit a rape kit. However, according to the officers, she refused to have the check up.
The rape allegation was not addressed in court but the visitor told Magistrate Gomez that she had filed a police report concerning the incident.
A U.S. Embassy representative was in court on the visitor’s behalf and suggested that since she wanted to return to the U.S. immediately, then the court should do whatever it was allowed to send her on her way.
The U.S. Embassy representative also revealed that the visitor’s family, who was contacted and informed of the incident, had filed a missing person’s report and had been searching for the accused for the past two weeks.
The representative briefly touched on reports of the visitor having some sort of mental illness, specifically bi-polar disease. However the woman contradicted the representative’s statements, saying that no such illness had ever been confirmed by a doctor.
Chief Gomez awarded bail in the amount of $1,500, which had to be paid in cash because the accused posed a flight risk.
However, she will have to return to The Bahamas on November 7 for a 2 pm court date.
The visitor first checked into the Atlantis Hotel on Sunday, July 16. Although no visible support was in the courtroom on the visitor’s behalf, It is still unsure as to with whom she was traveling.
By: INDERIA SAUNDERS, The Nassau Guardian
