DeFuniak
Springs native Paul Waggoner may be spending his Christmas holiday
sitting in a Haitian prison; jailed on kidnapping charges. His troubles
began when he was working as a medical relief worker after the January
earthquakes in Haiti. His sister Randi Lightner said Waggoner couldn’t
resist going to there after the news of the earthquakes broke.
“It’s one of those things that just touched him,” Lightner said of the images on television.
“There’s something in all of our lives I think that really touches us
more than other things, and I think he felt like he could help there.
And he has helped there.”
Waggoner’s previous run-ins with the law include assault charges in
Massachusettes. But Lightner said those charges were “completely
irrelevant” to his present situation. It all started shortly after the
quake, when Waggoner reportedly aided a Haitian father in indentifying
his deceased infant son. When it was over, a death certificate was
filed and the remains cremated. But later the father said his son
hadn’t in fact died, and Waggoner and others present for the
identification were summoned to a Haitian court. Waggoner said he fled
the country for fear of unjustified charges. He said he decided to
return to the country when told they were dropped.
Recently Waggoner ran into the deceased infant’s father, who had him
arrested on kidnapping charges. Waggoner has been imprisoned since
December 12. He was later moved to a notoriously overcrowded and
diseased Haitian penitentiary. His sister still lives in Defuniak
Springs, and she said she’s been making non-stop phone calls to
government offices.
“I didn’t get much information, just that they did see him yesterday for about 30 minutes,” Lightner said of the phone calls.
“[Today] was the first contact by any US official since December 15th.”
Lighner said she’s hoping pressure from media outlets and elected
officials will get her brother out of the country. She said she’s heard
he’s in bad health, and fears he may catch a disease while in jail. At
the very least, she knows he’ll probably miss Christmas in DeFuniak
Springs for only the second time in his life.
“Right now, it’s not going to be possible that he’s in our living room for Christmas,” Lighner said.
“We know that. The best we can hope for right now is that by
Christmas day he’s at least in an American hospital, he needs medical
attention.”
