Personal Injury Law

Six Carnival cruise ship passengers jailed in Antigua after dispute with cabbie

By Lipcon, Margulies & Alsina, P.A.

ix Carnival cruise ship passengers have been detained on the island of Antigua after a dispute over a cab fare ballooned into an alleged brawl with police.

The Antigua Sun today reports the six U.S. citizens -- Dolores Lalanne, 25, Mike Pierre Paul, 24, Joshua Jackson, 25, Shoshonnah Henry, 24, Nancy Lalanne, 22, and Rachael Henry, 27 -- have been charged with assault, battery and malicious damage and will be kept in the country pending trial.

The alleged brawl took place Friday after the cruisers arrived on the island aboard the Carnival Victory for what was supposed to be a 10-hour port call. The Associated Press says the incident began after the cruisers refused to pay a cab driver who gave them a tour because they believed they were being overcharged. The wire service says the driver had quoted the group $50 for a tour ending at a beach, and the dispute arose after he later told them the fare would be double to take them back to their ship. After the cruisers disputed the charge, the driver drove them to a police station, where the alleged brawl broke out.

The six cruisers, initially jailed on Friday, were released Monday on bail of $5,000 but have had to surrender their travel documents and must check in regularly with the court, the Sun reports.

The Sun says one of the passengers, Shoshonnah Henry, walked into Monday's court hearing with a limp her attorney said was the result of Friday's scuffle. The lawyer told the court the cruisers had endured deplorable conditions over the weekend in Antigua's jail that included being subjected to repeated mosquito bites.

"The females? faces are riddled with bumps and marks from being kept at the station," the Sun quotes the lawyer as saying.

The Sun says Shoshonnah Henry faces the majority of charges and is accused of beating four police officers -- a male and three females -- during the melee. One of the officers, Dee Dee Frederick, allegedly sustained an injury over one of her eyes, had her hair pulled out at the root and was bitten several times in the back, the news outlet reports.

The 2,758-passenger Carnival Victory was on a seven-night Southern Caribbean voyage out of Barbardos that ends Wednesday.

Full post as published by Cruise Ship Law on September 08, 2009 (boomark / email).