#STANDWITHTHEHAPGOODS Scott Hapgood Cannot Return to Anguilla To Clear His Name Because Anguilla Will Not Give Him a Fair Trial or Guarantee His Safety
Seven months ago, an employee of the Malliouhana Hotel on the British Overseas Territory of Anguilla, who was high on a cocktail of drugs including cocaine and had a pending rape charge, entered Scott Hapgood’s hotel room under false pretenses, attacked Scott and threatened the lives of two of his minor children. In response, Scott defended himself and his children. When the attacker died – in the hospital about an hour after the attack – Scott was charged with manslaughter. Three independent medical experts have now concluded that the attacker died due to the drugs in his system.
Despite the unfairness of the charge continuing, Scott has cooperated with the Anguillan legal process and has returned to the island three times for hearings in an effort to clear his name.
But it has become progressively apparent that Scott would not receive a fair trial in Anguilla. During the process, a toxicology report was suppressed, witnesses altered their accounts and submitted new statements that were false, a revised cause of death was ignored, legal counsel was excluded from the hearing, and numerous other actions that suggested that politics are governing Scott’s case rather than the law and the facts.
An inflammatory and false rhetoric has also grown around this case. Scott was accused of perpetrating racial violence. In many of the witness statements submitted into evidence by the Crown, Scott was referred to as simply “the Caucasian” or the “white man.” These accusations are deeply offensive and wrong. Scott’s race, and Kenny Mitchel’s race, are irrelevant to the facts of what happened.
In the lead up to the November 11 hearing – the final stage of the Preliminary Inquest – Scott’s legal team has worked tirelessly to obtain guarantees that he will be protected upon his return to Anguilla and that he would be allowed to return home on bail when the hearing ends. Despite these efforts, along with those of Senator Blumenthal and a bi-partisan group of other senators, members of Congress and the U.S. State Department, Anguillan officials have declined to give any such assurances. Scott has offered to appear at the November 11 hearing by video link, which was also rejected.
The guarantees of safety are essential for two reasons. First, there is a significant likelihood Scott’s incarceration would be indefinite, as a trial may not happen for many years. Second, there is near certainty the death threats he has received will come to fruition if he were to be held in an Anguillan prison for any length of time.
For these reasons, Scott has not returned to Anguilla.
“We understand there will be people in Anguilla who say Scott is running from a trial. That is 100 percent false. There is nothing Scott wants more than to clear his name and get his life back. But he cannot clear his name if he is dead, or if the legal process by which he is bound is fundamentally biased and unjust,” said his international lawyer, Juliya Arbisman.
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