After more than two months stuck in the Dominican RepublicDavid Bennett is finally back home in Ontario.
Although he is now physically free, he always recovers emotionally what he describes as a heartbreaking test.
The 57 -year -old man was arrested on March 7 in Punta Cana after he and his wife, Jane Wilcox, say that a yellow bag they have not recognized. The bag was labeled “Davi Bennett”, differing from its legal name David R. Bennett.
However, this similarity was sufficient to him to be reported by the authorities and retained at the airport for interrogation.
This moment marked the start of a legal and bureaucratic nightmare of several weeks for the couple.
“We just knew that we are in a state of arrest for an allegation of drug importation,” he said, about himself and another couple.
Bennett said he knew from the moment he was detained that the situation would not be resolved quickly.
“I just knew that I was not going home that day,” he told Global News. “I was not ready to stay there one day more than I should.”
Bennett described the initial transport to a compound of detention as terrifying.
He explained how he and four others were piled up in a vehicle going at high speed without a seat belt.
“We were piled up and handcuffed to each other, exceeding speeds of 130 kilometers per hour.” He remembers having thought, “Will I die?”
While in the enclosure, Bennett said that a translator said to him, “You have a lot of problems here … you tried to get drugs in our country, and we don’t appreciate that.
After about an hour, he said that he and the others had been brought back to the airport and left in a vehicle parked with the slightly open windows – and no air conditioning – for more than an hour.
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“We started to shout that we could not breathe,” he said. Finally, the police returned, started the engine and let the air conditioning run.
Bennett also said that they had never been officially fed during this whole process – only has two small bags of Halloween size chips to share between three people, as well as water bottles. He recalled that one of the chip bags was too spicy to eat.
Later in the evening, Bennett remembers having been transferred to a prison cell.
“The male cell was about 14 feet per maybe 20 feet-when the morning broke, I think 15 of us in this cell … He had an open bathroom that was disgusting,” he said. “There was no way I could sleep. I sat in the vertical position for eight or nine o’clock, just waiting for someone to sort it out. ”
The next day, he briefly met a lawyer before being brought back to this initial compound, he said, where he was questioned and imprinted.
That night, he said, he was taken to another prison establishment where he would spend the next 48 hours.
One of the detainees, he recalls, said to him, “You are in the best cell here. You are in Iglesia, which is the Church, because it is the safest cell in the enclosure. They said, “If you were next to Inferno, you would have a lot of problems.” »»
After a brief appearance before the court, Bennett said he had learned that the accusations against would not be abandoned, but his wife had paid bail.
He could not leave the Dominicans because the authorities would pursue an investigation.
Back home, Wilcox worked with a legal team 24 hours a day for the charges against Bennett rejected. She also said that the couple had great support from their friends and community.
It took five weeks for the charges to be abandoned, then five others before it was ultimately allowed to leave the country.
“I had this black cloud above my head throughout the time I was there,” said Bennett.
Wilcox said delays were the result of slow administrative processes and what their lawyer has described to world news as a limited Canadian government intervention.
Friday evening, Bennett finally landed in Toronto. He estimates that all of the event costs more than $ 80,000.
“I didn’t sleep well through it,” said Bennett. “I have always been a really healthy sleeper. Sleep has become a form of prison. Whenever I slept, I feared the night because I knew I would wake up.
Wilcox spent hours a day virtually supporting her husband and said the emotional balance sheet was immense.
“We have spent hours on FaceTime for the past two weeks, hours and hours trying to spend together,” she said.
Bennett said the whole experience had also affected his sleep schedule. “I always feel tired every day by the midwife. It was a trauma,” he said.
What was to be a misunderstanding quickly turned into a prolonged and painful legal impasse. Wilcox said she thought the authorities would quickly realize that they had the bad person.
“I expected what they understand that they had the bad guy quickly,” she said. “The communication was simply horrible from the government. It was a series of disinformation.”
The couple put pressure on Canadian government officials to intervene and help.
“No one talked to himself in a way that made sense,” said Wilcox. “We asked them to communicate with our lawyer here, because this is where all the big dugure was happening, this is where the investigation, all the evidence was taking place.”
Bennet and his wife want more to bring him home earlier.
“I love this country. I lived here all my life, 57 years. You have to do more for Canadians, ”said Bennett. “There were times when I felt that I was alone, when nobody really fought for me.”
The couple is now focusing on recovery and healing. They say that no one should be left in legal limbo abroad, especially after the deletion of the accusations.