Resh­ma Ra­goonath

When his date with a woman he met on Face­book went awry, Amer­i­can na­tion­al Drew Proc­tor got in a drunk­en rage and as­sault­ed a bar­tender on Sat­ur­day. That in­ci­dent cost him $3,400 in fines yes­ter­day. The South Car­oli­na res­i­dent ap­peared be­fore San Fer­nan­do Fifth Court Mag­is­trate Re­han­na Ho­sein and plead­ed guilty to as­sault­ing Alex­is Car­los by beat­ing, as well as re­sist­ing ar­rest and us­ing ob­scene lan­guage. Proc­tor, 30, who was rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Ains­ley Lucky, ad­mit­ted he lost con­trol af­ter con­sum­ing a large num­ber of al­co­holic drinks, in­clud­ing pun­cheon rum, tequi­la shots and mar­gar­i­tas. Lucky told the court his client suf­fered "cul­ture shock" when he ar­rived in Trinidad to meet his Face­book friend face-to-face.

When Proc­tor mixed his al­co­hol in­take, the at­tor­ney said, it had ad­verse ef­fect on his judg­ment and gave him "Dutch courage" to do what he did. "It was un­for­tu­nate," the at­tor­ney added. Ho­sein or­dered Proc­tor to pay $300 or serve three months in jail with hard labour for the as­sault, $100 for us­ing ob­scene lan­guage and $3,000 or nine months in prison with hard labour for re­sist­ing ar­rest. The mag­is­trate al­so or­dered Proc­tor to pay $1,800 in com­pen­sa­tion to Car­los for lost wages as the bar­tender has been un­able to work since the in­ci­dent. Car­los at­tend­ed court yes­ter­day with his left arm in a sling.

Out­side the court Proc­tor and Car­los spoke briefly and shook hands. Proc­tor was ar­rest­ed by PC De Boulet around 6.10 pm on Sat­ur­day by of­fi­cers who were on mo­bile pa­trol, po­lice pros­e­cu­tor Sgt Dwight Halls told the court. It was stat­ed that Proc­tor went to a sports lounge in La Ro­maine to meet his fe­male friend and be­gan drink­ing al­co­hol. The woman left abrupt­ly and Proc­tor be­came en­raged. He be­gan curs­ing and knock­ing over chairs. Car­los, who was on du­ty at the bar, spoke to Proc­tor and a scuf­fle en­sued. Proc­tor was ar­rest­ed and tak­en to the San Fer­nan­do Po­lice Sta­tion where he was charged.