"We want to give God the praise and thanks for bringing our children home. It's been a long and difficult month," Shoshonnah Henry said.
These twelve friends from Brooklyn got off the Carnival cruise to spend a day on the beech. They hired a taxi for what they thought was a set price and their horrible journey began.
They never made it to the beach and say they driver tried to rip them off.
"We were kidnapped. We were in a foreign country. No idea where we were. No idea where the man who lived in this country was taking us," Henry said.
Before they knew it, the group was in an empty alley arguing with the taxi driver who had made a call while recklessly driving. The group was eventually met by some unidentified people who beat them.
"I was attacked by four different women on the floor and a man holding me down," she said.
It went from a melee to six of the twelve thrown behind bars in horrible conditions.
"We were eaten by mosquitoes. We slept next to rats. I'm not saying it was suppose to be a pretty picture. It was jail, but to sleep in feces flowing into your cell," Henry said.
Their injuries were never treated. Their legs are still covered with bite marks and they were concerned about ring worm, but that was not their biggest fear.
"If we didn't catch a lawyer, the four girls were going to be raped. We were going to be raped and beaten," Henry said.
They got the lawyer and were released, but unable to leave the island before a trial. The six claimed it was self defense, but pleaded guilty to minor charges and released. As for the dispute over a taxi fee, which escalated into this horror, the six say they had the money to pay any amount, but refused on principle.
"He agreed to 50 US dollars and that's what we all agreed on a round trip… and that's what we agreed on. There was never a miscommunication with the funds," Mike Pierre-Paul said.
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