Haitian judge frees 1 Baptist volunteer

Haitian judge frees 1 Baptist volunteer

A Haiti judge freed one of two remaining Baptist volunteers March 8 but kept the group’s leader in jail pending further investigation.

Judge Bernard Saint-Vil allowed Charisa Coulter to be released, more than five weeks after she and nine others were arrested Jan. 29 for trying to take 33 children out of the earthquake-ravaged country to a makeshift orphanage in the Dominican Republic. They allegedly did not have the proper paperwork.

Saint-Vil kept the group’s leader, Laura Silsby, in jail, Reuters and The Associated Press reported. Both Silsby and Coulter are members of Central Valley Baptist Church, Meridian, Idaho. The other eight members of the group were released Feb. 18 and are back in the United States. (BP)