Sixty-seven-year-old Nicholas Paul Andrew, a Dominican taxi operator living and working in Antigua and Barbuda, has been arrested and charged for battery after allegedly beating a student of the American University of Antigua.
Andrew, who lives in Clarehall, reportedly beat the AUA student with a stick for unpaid wages.
Andrew appeared before Chief Magistrate Joanne Walsh and was charged with battery, but the prosecution said a more serious charge could be laid against him.
Andrew was reportedly hired to pick up the student and according to reports, after picking up the complainant, while getting close to his drop-off, the student indicated that he forgot his bag and wanted to go back.
The defendant informed the alleged victim that the fare was actually $45 since it was three trips in total.
The student reportedly became irate and spat in the taxi driver’s face.
Andrew claimed that he found a stick and used it to beat the student and still never got the money.
The medical report is said to indicate that the University student sustained injuries all over his body but Andrew believes that “somebody made that up.”
Andrew was granted bail in the sum of $10,000 with a cash component of $5000.
He also has to report to a police station three days a week, provide one local surety and surrender his travel documents in order to guarantee his temporary release.
The student recorded the entire episode.
A muted version of the video is available below. Viewer discretion is advised due to the nature of the content.
I think a good lawyer can get him off that charge or a plea deal that vitiates the whole thing to a disturbance charge. Spitting in someone’s face is more offensive to most of us than getting hit with a stick, not to mention the vile germs that may be lurking in that saliva. I think there is a self defense component to this but a lawyer must skillfully manage that.
My Take,I agree with you 100%.Spitting in someone’s face is an offence called assault.an attempt or offer by force or violence to do bodily injury to another.The attempt to injure is assault.The driver should be arrested and charged based on the medical report.The student should also be charged.My Take has a very good idea of the law.Unlike JJ.
What happen to Dominicans ??
Very intreasted! Did the taxi Driver, made an official Report to the police? Just asking. Not trying to play. Judge. MAGISTRATE OR MAGISTRATE. DOMINICA 🇩🇲 🇩🇲 🇩🇲 767.
Pablo cakafete?
Good questions my friend. But remember even if he did not , but during the investigation the assault was discovered them the student has to be charged in fairness to the justice system. Otherwise just will deemed one sided.
In this instance, the taxi driver was assaulted with a ball of mucus. He was then exposed to COVID 19. Should he then just walk away? Before this incident, Mr. Andrew’s character was clean like Jesus police record.
I don’t know the facts of the case but the fact that he has a stick beating the student and he never mentioned that he acted in self defence, this is going to get sticky for him. Additionally, word coming out of the taxi association in Antigua is that Paul is not a licensed taxi operator. This compounds his list of problems.
i don’t get the whole picture…why wasn’t it recorded from the start…Isn’t spitting on someone also considered an assault !!
i do not condone resorting to violent behavior…but there are also triggers to reaction…to every action there is equal opposite reaction.
the news piece breezed over the student spitting in the drivers face but highlighted his “over the board” reaction!!
the student should be arrested and charged also!!
as for the taxi driver…he needs counseling…anger management classes esp in such a line of “interactive” business.
@my take, well spoken! I fully agree with you. This student seemed not to want to pay a fare of $45.00–a cost that incurred because of his own carelessness, and on top of that he spits in the driver’s face. The driver might have taken this a bit too far, but there was two wrongs in this situation.
Elizabeth it is a good thing I read your submission; because although wrote a comment which DNO has not produced, I did not read this as you wrote: “The student reportedly became irate and spat in the taxi driver’s face.”
So, admin: I refute my own comments, and say the Dominican had every right in this case to level the passenger who spat in his face if that is the case.
Elizabeth there is a difference in mucus and saliva:
Saliva is watery liquid secreted into the mouth by glands, providing lubrication for chewing and swallowing, and aiding digestion.
Mucus is: a slimy substance secreted by mucous membranes and glands for lubrication, protection; in any event the student should not have treated the man as if he was nothing; if that had happen to me I might have gunned that sucker down!
So, it now my opinion both the student, and the Taxi driver should be held accountable for their actions, they both should be arrested!
But the student was wrong to spit in the man face… NOBODY would take that lightly!!! Anybody else that student had did that to would more than likely result in the same reaction!! Covid still going around…saliva is like a biological weapon now…why wasn’t the student charged as well???
All that old SOB had to do is take the person he assaulted to retrieve his bag; and get paid his $45.00 dollars, his bail is more $45.00; I will forever asks how stupid are we Dominicans?
This sixty year old man, is going off to jail, no question about it, they behave worst when the set foot out of Dominica than when they are in Dominica.
So, there is a Medical School in Antigua; operating there since 2014; where is Dominica’s medical school; “Ross University School of Medicine?”
Roosevelt Skerrit chase them to Barbados, after forty-years of operation in Dominica!
We doh want no stinking foreign medical school in Dominica; all we need is the sale of Dominica passports, that is the best source of revenue for (my very own personal Roosevelt Skerrit Dominica)!
The man was dedending himself from you spitting in his face. How disgusting he should have knock out all your teeth. And you have injuries all over your body and still able to record.
He had no right to spit in the man’s face, she should cal the call on the passenger for not paying and spiting on him. What he was wrong, he could have killed the person from what i saw.
He should call the cops on the passenger for spitting on him and for not paying him.
If the passenger spat on the driver’s face, then the passenger deserves the severe beating he got and more.
About a year ago, in a neighbouring island, I saw a video where a white American tourist kicked a taxi driver because the driver demanded to be paid the full fare. The taxi driver floored the tourist with a powerful right hook to the left jaw.
To spit on someone’s face is outrageously disdainful. How can one remain composed after being physically assaulted and disrespected in such a manner?
Everywhere they go they bring their bad ways
So, an American guy strangles a Dominican hotel worker in some Caribbean island some time ago and was allowed to board a plane back to the US and up to today is yet to face justice. Now a Dominican taxi operator (allegedly) beats up an American citizen for refusing to pay his taxi fare and spitting in his face, and is immediately charged and has his travel documents confisticated to ensure he does not flee from Antigua. Eh beh! No wonder Americans think that they can do what ever they want anywhere in the world and don’t expect to face justice but every one else can be punished. It is called American exceptionalism.
Lol…well the Chinese does the same thing in Dca to Dominican citizens but the difference is the police CANNOT arrest them. How do we call that?
We call that Bwa- Banday