When the FBI Comes Calling…®
June 14, 2005
By JEREMY GRAY
News staff writer
Aruba officials release two security guards Two guards cleared in Holloway case Attorney for one says three other suspects lied about Holloway
Two security guards were released late Monday and cleared of any involvement in the disappearance of Mountain Brook's Natalee Holloway in Aruba, an attorney said.
Abraham Jones, 28, and Antonius ''Mickey'' John, 30, both former security guards, were taken into custody June 5 and released at 10 p.m. Monday, said Chris Lejuez, lawyer for Jones.
''He is very happy about his release,'' Lejuez said. ''He is a shy man, but I could see in his eyes he was very relieved.''
John said he also was happy but disappointed he had been held. ''I knew from Day One that I was innocent,'' he told The Associated Press.
Lejuez earlier Monday said his client told him he had a jail cell conversation with 17-year-old suspect Joren van der Sloot in which van der Sloot said he and two others arrested last week made up their original story.
Lejuez said van der Sloot told Jones that he and brothers Satish Kalpoe, 18, and Deepak Kalpoe, 21, lied when they said they last saw Holloway, 18, after dropping her off at her hotel early May 30.
Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers reportedly were the last to see Holloway, who disappeared hours before her return flight from a trip with 123 other recent Mountain Brook High School graduates and seven chaperones.
The Kalpoes and van der Sloot were arrested Thursday.
Lejuez said van der Sloot told Jones the Kalpoe brothers dropped him off at his house that night and that he last saw Holloway drive off with the Kalpoes.
Van der Sloot said the brothers are now alleging that they left him with Holloway on the beach that night, Lejuez said.
Antonio Carlo, attorney for van der Sloot, declined to comment Monday.
Holloway's mother, Beth Twitty, said she never believed the two security guards had anything to do with her daughter's disappearance and doesn't believe anything the three young suspects say.
''I think they are all lying,'' she said. ''The boys have admitted to lying repeatedly. Who knows what you can believe from them?''
Twitty said she felt the three were desperate to cover their role in Holloway's disappearance. ''They keep trying new stories and they're not working,'' she said.
No one has been charged in Holloway's disappearance, which is common at this point in the process under Aruban law, and lawyers for the three remaining detainees insist their clients are innocent.
Van der Sloot is a Dutch honors student at Aruba International School who is the son of a high-ranking judicial official on Aruba.
Twitty told The Associated Press Sunday that the government should pressure the three to reveal what they know.
Aruban government spokesman Ruben Trapenberg said Monday that political officials ''cannot pressure the justice system to do anything.''
Justice officials ''already know the weight of the world is on their shoulders,'' he said.
Twitty said the family is talking to lawyers to ask about procedures for extraditing suspects in case her daughter is not found alive.
Douglas McNabb, the senior principal of criminal defense firm McNabb Associates, which handles extradition cases from its offices in Houston and Washington, said the United States would not be able to get jurisdiction in the case unless Holloway fell victim to a crime while on federal property, such as at a U.S. embassy, or unless a suspect contacted someone in the United States about the crime.