“Trailed”: Ontario man cleared in the Dominican Republic and still unable to return home
Although all criminal charges against him were dropped and the judge confirmed his freedom, a man in Ontario was trapped in the Dominican Republic for more than two months.
However, administrative delays and restrictions on Canadian intervention have prevented David Bennett from returning to his hometown.
The ordeal began with a case of wrong identity, involving the discovery of yellow bags of drugs at the Punta Cana airport. But this is no longer a problem.
Bennett's wife has been trying to bring him home, but has been facing many delays.
“All all charges have been dropped,” said Jane Wilcox, Bennett's wife. “We learned on April 14 that all charges will be dropped… On Friday, we learned that it would take another one to two weeks to remove travel restrictions.”
Now, Bennett is not law enforcement, but paperwork.
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According to Bennett's attorney Gary Boucher, “The one-to-two-week period is definitely not clear. To the best of our knowledge, this is uncertainty is legal.” He explained that the problem is not a formal travel ban, but a lag in clearing names from the national database.
In other words, holding seems purely managed, and Bennett's freedom relies on the speed of the local system to reflect that the charges have been removed.
“It's just the result of withdrawing the charges,” Boucher explained. “So… Dave can leave the country when he's on the airport – there will be no power there and they will have data that suggests he's not allowed to leave. ”
Boucher said Punta Cana's system must update its records so that Bennett will not stop again when he tries to fly.
“We are waiting for the administrative wheel to turn,” he said. “For us, the challenge is to find effective ways to introduce it to the Dominican Republic authorities.
“We hope to make the situation come true as soon as possible due to the very significant emotional and psychological distress that Dave and his family have suffered.”
Wilcox is working tirelessly to escalate the matter. “We have asked the ambassador and global affairs to put pressure on the government just to reaffirm the urgency of having an innocent Canadian there,” she said.
For Wilcox and Bennett, delays are causing serious emotional losses. “He was exhausted,” Wilcox said. “He just wanted to spend the day…he felt stuck and felt vulnerable.”
The RCMP also said they had recently arrested cases similar to Bennett.
“We have been arrested, related to the conversion of luggage tags and the export of drugs, but have no direct relationship with Mr. Bennett's case or baggage. Similar approaches, but not specific to his case. Dominican Republic police are investigating.”
For Wilcox, the news highlighted the husband's plea of guilty unnecessarily detained. “Bad guy or girl get caught. So let innocent guys go home.”
& Copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
