Dominical suspect faces
renewed detention order


Freedom, if there was any, was brief for the suspect in the Ben Vaughn attempted murder case.

A judge Tuesday ended the preventative detention of the suspect, Jasón Rojas Rodríguez, Tuesday morning. He was facing allegations of simple robbery and fraud unrelated to the assault last week that left a Dominical area real estate broker in critical condition.

At 4 p.m. Tuesday a judge imposed a three-month preventative detention on the attempted murder allegation. A.M. Costa Rica reported Wednesday that the man was freed because reporters were unaware of the 4 p.m. court action.

Investigators are looking at another individual in the Vaughn case, but so for there is insufficient proof, according to William Soto, the local prosecutor in the Cantón de Osa on the central Pacific coast.

Friends reported Wednesday that Vaughn, founder of Guys in the Zone realty, which is located in Uvita, underwent another surgery Wednesday. He suffered multiple head injuries. He is at Hospital CIMA in Escazú.


Vaughn crime is atrocity
prompting serious questions

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

In response to the recent events surrounding the horrific attack of Ben Vaughn in Dominical early last week. 

When are we going to stand up and start protecting ourselves from the violent criminals that roam this country without regards to anyone’s value of life? Although there seems to be some conflicting stories as to just what happened, this is no excuse for an innocent person to almost get beaten to death by a band of delinquents. The crime itself is an atrocity but the fact that the accused are now free roaming the streets again is inexcusable.

Are we really not that important here? Does the government grant more rights to the criminals than taxpaying, law abiding residents? Who will be the next victim? Will it be you or me?  These are all serious questions we must ask ourselves. There needs to be change and it needs to be done quickly.

Enjoy yourself in this beautiful country of Costa Rica but don’t get killed in the process. Protect yourselves! Our hearts and prayers go out to you Ben Vaughn.

Editor's note:  The principal suspect only was freed for a few hours. See today's story above.
 

Legislative action needed
to derail bogus projects

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

I take strong exception to the statement you made in your story about the Paragon Properties debacle that "The Florida lawyer, Sarelson, incorrectly calls the Paragon operation a ponzi scheme. But a ponzi scheme is when early investors are paid with money collected from later investors."

What difference does it make whether the new money coming into a real estate project is surreptitiously returned to existing investors in the form of promised cash/a return on investment or a water system which is also part of a promised reward for investing?

Promises have been and are being made by developers that can only be kept when/if there is sufficient new investment money to, for instance, install infrastructure.

If the new money dries up, so does the project, as we've seen again and again all over Costa Rica in the last years, and the investors get hosed. It may not qualify as a classic Ponzi scheme, but it's no less manipulative, no less a misrepresentation of the intention of the developers. It's fraud.

These slippery developers have cost the Costa Rican economy countless millions of dollars by shutting the door on hundreds if not thousands of investors who would have eventually come, built their dream homes/lived in their condos and spent copious amounts of money in the pursuit of happiness and recreation! Thousands of jobs were lost as well.

The amount of money that would have been spent on construction materials must be staggering. The reputations of honest real estate businesses and Costa Rica as a place to buy a vacation/retirement home have been damaged severely, and possibly irreparably.

The government should require would-be developers like Paragon to deposit funds into escrow accounts that are sufficient to cover the installation of basic infrastructure needs like power, water, roads, security systems and phone systems.

If the government would do this, the number of real estate disasters like Paragon would be reduced significantly and the economic picture would be brighter all around because fly-by-night developers and outright scammers would be kept out of the game.