QBLOGS –Tropical paradises attract tourists and retirees in large part for their more relaxed pace of life. But when this state of languor extends to government institutions it can turn one’s heaven into a personal hell.
This is nowhere more evident than in the justice system of Costa Rica, as Sheldon Haseltine has been telling anyone who would listen for the last 22 years, the length of his official case, or cases, in both the civil and criminal courts.
The latest chapter in Haseltine’s saga unfolded January 16, 2024 at the Second Circuit Court in San José. This was a criminal case against Alexis Gerardo Salas Lopez for forging the title to one of Haseltine’s lots. The case had originally been brought in 2009, and the defendant had agreed to relinquish his claim in return for Haseltine not pursuing the charges. The judge, however, refused this agreement, and the case has languished until now.
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It all started in 1978 when Haseltine’s then wife, Janine Milne, bought two lots of property of five hectares each in Herradura for the purpose of eventually growing avocados and mangos to provide a modest income to supplement their eventual retirement. The property was on a bluff overlooking the beach. But this was long before the Marriott Los Sueños was built and nobody considered it prime real estate. You had to fly there, as there were no roads when Milne first visited.
Haseltine and Milne lived in London and gave little thought to the property until 1991, when they visited in response to reports of squatters. Squatters are an issue in Costa Rica because its agrarian law grants them right of ownership after ten years, even if someone has title to the land. And it can be difficult to evict them before then.
Haseltine subsequently acquired three adjacant lots for himself, two of five acres each and one of 6.9 hectares. He was given a 40-60% share on the condition he win the case against the squatters. Eventually he gained 100% interest. But he and Milne remained abroad. In 1996 Haseltine returned for three months, but the squatters threatened him with guns and machetes. The police refused to intervene.
Milne spent thirty thousand dollars in legal fees. They discovered that the squatters had been employed by three of the most powerful families in Costa Rica, who saw the investment potential of the land and expected Haseltine and Milne to cut their losses and run back home, as so many foreigners do when faced with the arcane laws of Costa Rica.
Instead, the foreigners went to court.
The first charges were brought in 1996 and the first trial was held in 2001. There would be many more cases in the two decades to follow, in both civil and criminal courts, in San José and Puntarenas, even in the shade of palm trees outdoors on their contested property.
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Haseltine would make a video that was dubbed into Spanish and posted on YouTube, garnering over 200,000 views and making him a local celebrity. But the national Spanish-language newspapers and television stations refused to cover his story.
“My fight was with family members of the most important newspaper in Costa Rica,” Haseltine explained. “A reporter who will remain unnamed confirmed to me my case was off limits!”
Last year Haseltine finally won the case for 4.2 hectares of his 6.9 hectare lot. However, the the remainder of that lot, as well as his two other lots and Milne’s two lots must await a verdict in the Salas Lopez case, because the squatters residing there appealed.
“All quite cunning!” said Haseltine.
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So on a bright sunny morning at 8:30 AM Sheldon Haseltine once again stepped into a Costa Rican courtroom, this time in Goicoechea, across town from his modest apartment in Escazú.
The three judges entered the courtroom at 9:50 AM, but the defendant was nowhere to be seen. In fact, he was a fugitive, a detail that should have been known to the court for some time. Nevertheless, the judges cited this inconvenient circumstance—as well as the deaths of three of the four fraud victims since charges were first filed in 2009—as cause for adjournment until August 26, 2024.
When asked why he bothered to attend when his presence was not required—he wasn’t on the witness list—and knowing the high probability of another postponement, Haseltine said, “I wanted to confirm what I and others suspected might happen. I have reluctantly concluded that on occasion the legal system is a facilitator for white-collar endeavors. Whether this latest development confirms this is a matter of conjecture, but as is said. ‘the proof is in the pudding.’ The non-result of this 15-year saga speaks for itself and makes a mockery of the judicial system, for as Martin Luther King said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’”
Haseltine left the courtroom disappointed once again, but no less resolute. “I’ll be back in August!”
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Mark Schreiber
