The family of an Indiana missionary who fled to the Caribbean because of COVID-19 is facing growing legal trouble and financial ruin since investigators found an unlicensed firearm and a cache of ammunition in their possession.
Jason and Jennifer Grogg and their two teenage daughters were arrested on April 17 when authorities on the island of Dominica found a gun and ammunition inside a 40-foot-long shipping container the family used to store their belongings, the Indianapolis Star reported.
After seven days in jail, Jason pleaded guilty to possessing the firearm without a license and paid a $9,250 fine to secure the release of his wife and daughter, he told the outlet.
“My wife and my two daughters [Hannah, then 18, and Gracia, then 16] basically being in a cell that’s four feet by less than 10 feet for seven days. It’s just, it’s so inhumane,” Jason said of the ordeal.
When Jason, Jennifer, and the older girls were first arrested and charged with various charges – including weapons smuggling and customs duty evasion – the two younger children were taken into custody by the Commonwealth and sent to a home for children ignored, IndyStar explained. .
Jason Grogg pleaded guilty to firearms charges in the spring. Youtube/@jgrogg
“They said if you plead guilty to these ammunition and weapons charges then we’re going to let your wife and your kids go so that’s the problem I had to do that— I had to plead guilty to those charges,” Jason said. – although he still disputes Dominica’s claim of exactly what weapons equipment was found.
During a search of the family’s rental home in the Belfast area of Dominica and a shipping container, investigators found a 9 mm Glock pistol, 9 mm and 20 mm ammunition, four M16 magazines with 30 rounds of ammunition, and 17 20-gage bullets, Dominica News Online said at the time , citing local law enforcement.
Jason, however, insists that the officers only found “a few assorted bullets” and the gun he planned to get a permit for.
It is unclear why authorities searched the family’s property in the first place.
On May 4, just days after his guilty plea, Jason was detained again by customs officials at Douglas Charles Airport, Dominica News Online reported.
Jason was jailed for another week on charges of evading duty on goods his family brought into the country, IndyStar explained.
He will return to court in February 2024.
The Groggs’ legal ordeal comes two years after Jason and Jennifer — who describe themselves as Christian missionaries — moved their family to Dominica from Logansport amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We left the United States for a very specific reason when it comes to the COVID nonsense. But we also saw clearly that this was the path God wanted us to take for an unknown purpose,” Jason told Star about the move.
Jason and Jennifer Grogg are moving their family to Dominica in 2021. Youtube/@jgrogg
Back in Indiana, Jason is a firearms instructor and member of the National Rifle Association, the outlet added.
Even before the family decided to leave for the Eastern Caribbean, they had written in a newsletter to friends and family that they felt the expansion of LGBTQ+ rights meant the US had rejected God.
“We feel like God is taking us out of the country to go somewhere else. He took us to the Commonwealth of Dominica,” Jason told IndyStar.
The Groggs decided to stop camping in Dominica based on a recommendation from an associate in Florida, and their own research that connected them with Feed My Sheep, a faith-based nonprofit that supports youth in crisis on the island.
Feed My Sheep cut ties with Jason Grogg on April 11 – just days before authorities raided the family’s property – due to his “recent abusive & fraudulent behavior,” the organization said in a statement.
While he waits for the progress of his case, Jason is required to sign the local bail book three times a week, he told IndyStar.
“The government of Dominica has my passport. And I have to go, I have to walk to the nearest town, sign the bail book three times a week — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday when someone signs the bail book for murder,” he lamented to the outlet. .
“They sign him maybe once every week. It is clearly unbalanced,” he stressed.
The family has also eaten through their savings covering legal fees, the distraught patriarch said.
“My wife and my children, they all have passports to leave the country if they need to in an emergency. Because the government has taken so long and absorbed so much of my funds, we have no way at this point, unless we have family paying for the ticket, there is no way we can go now,” Jason said.
The US State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs confirmed that it was aware of Groggs’ arrest, but did not provide further details, IndyStar said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
