US State Department apologizes to family of jailed man – NBC Boston

An American tourist charged in the Turks and Caicos Islands over ammunition found in his bag will have to wait another three weeks before learning what his sentence will be.

Pennsylvanian Bryan Hagerich and his wife Ashley appeared in court in Providenciales on Friday. He is one of several Americans arrested under the Caribbean’s strict arms and ammunition law, which carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 12 years and has prompted new travel warnings from state officials.

NBC10 Boston was the first to break the story, which is now making international headlines.

The US State Department is warning travelers of tough new laws in the Turks and Caicos Islands, which carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 12 years for bringing weapons or ammunition to the island. Follow NBC10 Boston on… Instagram: instagram.com/nbc10boston TikTok: tiktok.com/@nbc10boston Facebook: facebook.com/NBC10Boston

Hagerich was arrested on Feb. 13 while returning home from vacation with his family on charges that he was carrying ammunition: bullets from a previous hunting trip that he said he had accidentally taken with him. He spent eight days in jail before posting bail.

He has pleaded guilty to possessing twenty rounds of ammunition. He faces everything from a prison sentence of up to twelve years; judges overseeing the cases may take exceptional circumstances into account.

After hearing arguments in court, the judge overseeing the case scheduled another hearing for later in May.

The former Florida Marlin draft pick lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and two children, but has not been able to leave the Turks and Caicos Islands while the case is pending.

Three other American tourists face a 12-year prison sentence for possession of ammunition.

Michal Evans, from Texas, was arrested in December and is scheduled for a hearing on June 18.

Oklahoman Ryan Watson was arrested last month and will be back in court on June 7. The Transportation Safety Administration has admitted it failed to detect bullets in Watson’s bag as he boarded a plane in Oklahoma on April 7. The agency did not monitor Hagerich’s case.

Tyler Wenrich of Virginia was charged two weeks ago when he tried to board his cruise ship. He was released on Friday after his family posted bail.

Following our series of reports on Americans detained in Turks and Caicos for possession of ammunition, US officials say they will investigate how the country got through airport checkpoints in the first place.

The mother of another American who served eight months in prison for violating the Turks and Caicos Islands Arms and Ammunition Act, Michael Grim, told NBC10 Boston that she felt U.S. Embassy officials were blocking his case and communications had mishandled her, including delayed, incomplete, and sometimes inaccurate responses from the embassy to her weekly emails.

Pfau said she relied on the US Embassy in the Bahamas for help, but had difficulty getting basic information from staff, and that no one from the US Embassy visited her son while he was held at His Majesty’s Prison (HMP) on the Grand Turk. The island, which according to local media in the Turks and Caicos Islands, has been deemed unfit for human habitation by the TCI Human Rights Commission and in violation of international human rights standards.

Pfau said she included the head of the U.S. Embassy, ​​Usha Pitts, in an email to embassy staff asking for information about her son’s condition. She shared the following email response from Pitts with NBC10 Boston:

Please remove me from your emails. I am not involved in any ongoing health and wellness matters, and I have not given you my email address. Nor will I provide you with details of my interactions with the Governor, which do not arise exclusively from Michael’s case, but rather from a wide range of security topics. Regarding the embassy services, I ask that you limit your communications to the team responsible for US citizens (Jessica and Lance). I am confident they will provide your son with the same high-quality service as all American citizens who travel through the archipelago – over six million of them every year.

Pfau said the email left her feeling “very defeated” that the U.S. Embassy would not keep my son at the forefront of their conversations with the government.

US officials are apologizing to the family of Michael Grimm, accused of violating the Turks and Caicos Ammunition Possession Act, for the way they handled the case and communicated with his mother.

When we asked Pitts about the email, she referred us to the U.S. State Department for comment.

“We apologize to the Grim family for the tone and content of the emails. They were not consistent with the high priority we place on caring for Americans abroad,” a State Department spokesperson said. “The U.S. Department of State and our embassies and consulates abroad have no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens abroad. As permitted by law, we are committed to sharing information with families as quickly as possible.”

The spokesperson added that when a U.S. citizen is detained, they seek immediate access to the individual.