Living in Manhatan almost all my life, I never knew personally anyone who was put into jail. Here in Cancun, Mexico four guys that I met during the past 23 years have spent time in jail for different reasons. They don't know eacy other, and the reasons for jail time are all different.
Latest first:
PETER;On the island where Alton and I hang out, we sometimes sit near Peter and his son. Peter was in a car accident in the States many years ago and is on disability. He is tall and thin, walks with a limp and his body is somewhat twisted. He should have had an operation after the accident but decided not to do it. Peter is a fun guy and like lots of people, smokes a joint now and then. He's been in the Island jail now for two days. For some unknow reason, his Cuban neighbor "dropped a dime" on him and told the police that he's growing marujana plants in his garden. Sure enough he had two plants in his yard and five joints in his house. His picture and photos of the plants are all over the local papers. Everyones waiting to see "how much the Police want" to let him out. As of today, we don't know.
KENNY:Kenny is a friend of Jack, you remember him from some of my early blogs. He lives in a condo called Las Brisas out in the Hotel Zone. I met him with Jack for coffee once about a year ago. He's 65 and a retired cop from California. He's been in the Jail since the 13th of April 2006. After many years of him bring Mayan kids over to the pool at Las Brisas, his neighbor Sandra thought it was funny that he was spending all this time with young kids and their parents. She called the cops. They found 1364 photos of kids like 8 to 12 years old in his condo, most of them had bathing suit on but some were nude. He also had a video camera in his bathroom thaking videos of the kids showering. To this date , their is no evidence of child abuse. Mothers and thier kids have been sleeping over his place for years but not one sexual complaint has appeare, and believe me these Mexican Cop are grilling all of them to get on piece of evidence. To date, nada. He is still in jail, it's been over a month now. Kenny has had and still has full pages in ALL the local papers. The topic of "Pedifiles In Mexico" is very hot now, and their milking his story every day. As is stands now, they don't have anything solid for a pedifile , but he could get 5 to 10 years for taking all those nude/and in bathing suit, photos of the underaged mayan kids. Jack says that he knew Kenny for the past 10 years and never had a clue to his dark side. Remember Jack is the guy who slept with the Mother and her 15 year old daughter last summer, so I thnk that their is some room for doubt here.
JIMMY:45 year old Jimmy the gigalo is from the States and was living with 80 years old Alice before he was put into Jail. He has been in jail since MAY 2005 !!!! I saw Alice's apt once, just beautiful, on a high floor overlooking the ocean. They both had super bedrooms with great views. To give you the short story, ALice wanted to buy Jimmy the Lamboghini that I built some years ago, a pretty good replica and a real head turner in the street. I said ok, knowing he was a bomb ready to explode I made it clear that everything had to be in her name before they took it out of my shop. The deal went down fine and he was the talk of the Hotel Zone. Every one knew him because of the bright yellow Lambo that he was driving and his macho image.
He got caught haveing sex with a Mexican girl in the pool area of the Condo where lives. One of the owners called the cops, the girl was drugged out and screaming he's raping me. Cop took him to Jail exactally a year ago and thats where he's been ever since. Her family wanted $14,000 dollars, he doesn't have it, Alice wasn't going to give to him, he has no friends with money. Jimmy could be in Jail for many years on this rape charge.
LARRY:Super guy and a good friend of mine. Larry came to Cancun some five years ago with his Mother to open a Gay Bed and Breakfast. He bought an nice home in a good area from a German guy. Had 4 bedrooms with seperate entrances and a small pool, cool B&B, only to find out that the guy who sold the house to him, had no right to do so, the home was in the name of his Ex Mexican Wife. He sold the house to Larry for $100,000 dollars. When she found out about it, she sold the house to someone else for $50,000. Larry came back from Walmat one afternoon and the cops were waiting their to pick him up. Larry's papers were not legal. He spent three terrible days in Jail, they immediately put him into the cestpool, waist high in turds , they would lower a pail, he would fill it up and then they would pull it up. THIS WAS NOT HIS FAULT !!! HE HAD A LAWER BUT THAT WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH IN THIS THIR WORLD COUNTRY. Friends got him a lawyer, he had to commit to paying him $7000 dollars and they released him. Neddless to say, he lost his house, money and the German guy left town. Larry went back to the Midwest and is living with his Mom. I keep in touch with him by email.
Finally
STEVE:Steve went into business with a Mexican, His name wasn't on any of the papers. He thought that he could trust the guy and agreed to be a silent partner. The deal was to rent 2 warehouses, import leaves from Jamacia and Cuba, make cigars and sell them in Cancun. After a while he found out from friends that his Mexican partner we selling lots of cigars for cash and keeping the money. Steve went to a Lawyer ( as you can see from Larry case, the problem starts here with the Mexican Lawyers) . The Lawyer told him to take the balance of the inventory, his partner had photos of him taking the invertory, and that was enough for him to be put in jail. Get this now............for how long...............OVER A YEAR AND A HALF!!!!! An upstanding guy with a wife and 3 daughters. I visited Steve in jail, brought him some food and car magazines. Then the heavy's would come to our table and take some of the soda and food that I brought for him, and the beat goes on, to the tune of a year and a half and the loss of all his savings and property.