The French restaurateur and his family were being harassed by former VKS soldier R.B. of St. Maarten for a period that started some four weeks ago after R.B. was sent to the restaurateur by airco business Mr. Cool to repair the kitchen refrigerator.
According to the French family, R.B. needed two days to finalize the repair and came for dinner some three days later and checked on the condition of the fridge while leaving his invoice.
Two days later R.B. made a stop at the restaurant in the early morning demanding payment and started to curse and insult the kitchen crew while demanding the cellphone number of the wife of the restaurateur. The kitchen personnel refused to follow R.B.'s orders.
R.B. meanwhile started to demolish the same Fridge that he had helped repair.
R.B. left the premises only to return some days after. This time he found the wife of the restaurateur alone in her small office located next to the restaurant. He entered the office and immediately started to demand money while shouting and pushing the terrified woman. R.B. seemed to calm down for a moment, carefully turning around and locking the office door from the inside. At the same moment, a friend of the lady passed by who called the police and assisted the lady in escaping.
R.B. calmly waited for the police to arrive. The police told him to leave the family alone and involve a lawyer.
The lady filed a complaint at the police station against R.B. At the same time, the lady offered the detective to leave a cheque for R.B. at the station hoping that it would put an end to the harassment. The detective however, said he could not accept it.
Some three weeks later, Monday November 28, R.B. parked his car on the premises of the Restaurant and immediately tried to get into the lady's office. The lady managed to lock the door before R.B. reached it and called the police and her husband, the restaurateur, who was working at the dock.
The restaurateur met R.B. at the door, behind which his wife was hiding, and told him to leave the premises. R. B. immediately handed over his invoice and shouted that he wanted his money now.
The restaurateur suggested to wait for the police in order to work things out. R.B. tried to pull the invoice out of the hands of the restaurateur tearing it in the process knowing he was forbidden by the police to enter the premises. R. B. became so aggressive that the restaurateur feared for his safety and that of his wife and reached for a piece of wood to scare off the intruder. R.B. was not impressed by the lifted piece of wood and went back to his car to collect a long piece of heavy metal pipe seemingly ready at hand.
The restaurateur and R.B. entered into a sort of sword-fighting when the restaurateur hit the car of R.B. and R.B. hit the restaurateur. The restaurateur was severely hurt by the heavy blows he was receiving form R.B. and fell to the ground. R.B. , who was accompanied by his cousin, kept on hitting the man with the pipe while the restaurateur was trying to protect his face and head. Several bystanders urged R.B. to stop hitting but R.B. refused to stop.
Suddenly, R.B. stopped his action and ran to his car to flee the scene. The reason seemed to be the loaded gun that was aimed at him by the son of the restaurateur who had taken his fathers old hunting rifle out of the garage. Shortly, after the police arrived at the scene and arrested the restaurateur for illegal arms possession.
Meanwhile R.B. had already filed a complaint against the restaurateur for threatening him with a weapon.
The restaurateur was kept on the floors of the local police station for several days. The French Association for French Residents and Businessmen on St.Maarten, UFE, locally represented by Mr. Philipe Costa and Jean Marie Durand, got notice of the serious situation the restaurateur was in and retained the services of local Attorney Remco Stomp.
The restaurateur was released shortly after.
