- MIAMI - A teacher's aide
who forgot to put away her marshmallows and hot chocolate at Yellowstone
National Park last year was taken from her cruise ship cabin in handcuffs
and hauled before a judge Friday, accused of failing to pay the year-old
fine.
-
- Hope Clarke, 32, crying and in leg shackles, told the
judge she was rousted at 6:30 a.m. by federal agents after the ship returned
to Miami from Mexico. She insisted that she had been required to pay the
$50 fine before she could leave Yellowstone, which has strict rules about
food storage to prevent wildlife from eating human food.
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- Customs agents meet all cruise ships arriving from foreign
ports and run random checks of passenger lists, and a warrant claiming
Clarke had not paid the fine was found in the federal law enforcement database.
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- Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Outerbridge conceded there
were some "discrepancies," but suggested to the judge that Clarke
appear in court again to clear up the warrant.
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- U.S. Magistrate Judge John O'Sullivan, who had a copy
of a citation indicating the fine had been paid, apologized to Clarke,
who spent nearly nine hours in detention, and demanded that the U.S. attorney's
office determine what went wrong.
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- Zach Mann, spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, called the arrest "an unfortunate set of circumstances."
He added, "We were acting on what we believed was accurate information."
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