US State Department apologizes to mother of American imprisoned in Turks and Caicos

Four Americans now face potential 12-year sentences for charges of ammunition possession after allegedly bringing bullets in their luggage while vacationing on the Islands of Turks and Caicos.

NBC10 Boston was the first to break the story, which is now making international headlines.

Teresa Pfau, the mother of Michael Grim, spoke with NBC10 Boston and criticized how U.S. Embassy officials handled Grim's case and communications with her.

"I would say we received minimal support from the U.S. Embassy" in the Bahamas, Pfau said.

She told NBC10 Boston that she often got delayed, incomplete and sometimes inaccurate responses from the embassy to her weekly emails.

"My expectation was really that they could have compassion and kindness," said Pfau. "That just seemed to be lacking. We were told … 'Our policy is that you have to abide by another country's law and we're sorry. There can not be given any special treatment.'"

Grim was sentenced to eight months in prison on Turks and Caicos Islands last year for possession of ammunition. Pfau said she relied on the U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas for help, but had trouble getting basic information from the staff.

"I felt like I continually said, 'We're not asking for special treatment. We're asking to understand, what are the rules of the prison? What are the visitation policies? … Are we going to be able to communicate with our son?'" said Pfau. "We found out all of that information usually a few days before the embassy got back to us."

Pfau said Grim was incarcerated at His Majesty's Prison (HMP) on the Grand Turk Island.

Last March, local Turks and Caicos media outlets reported the TCI Human Rights Commission found the prison was not fit for human habitation and was in breach of international human rights standards. They specifically referenced overcrowding, poor sanitation and sewage issues as being the main concerns. In those same media reports, the nation's Ministry of Home Affairs admitted there were issues with sewage that officials were beginning to deal with.

Pfau said despite those concerns, no one from the U.S. Embassy visited her son while he was held there. She said officials told her his sentence was too short to warrant a visit.

"I was extremely, like, extremely fearful and worried about his safety," said Pfau. "I was very concerned about his health."

Pfau said she felt like there was no one that could help her keep tabs on her son.

"I was going to have to do it along with our family," she said. "Because the only person that we had was the attorney, the only link we had to Michael was the attorney."

Pfau said she included the head of the U.S. Embassy, Usha Pitts, on an email to embassy staff requesting information about her son's condition. She shared the following email response from Pitts with NBC10 Boston:

"Please remove me from your emails. I do not involve myself in ongoing health-and-welfare cases, and I did not give you my email address. Nor will I provide you with details of my interactions with the Governor, which are not driven solely by Michael's case, but rather a broad range of security topics. Regarding Embassy services, I ask that you restrict your communications to the team in charge of American Citizens (Jessica and Lance). I am confident they are giving your son the same high-level service they provide to all American citizens traveling in the archipelago – over 6 million of them every year."

"I felt very angry, I felt very defeated, that the U.S. Embassy was not going to keep my son at the forefront of their conversations with the government," said Pfau.

We asked Pitts about the email and she referred us to the U.S. State Department for comment.

"We apologize to the Grim family for the tone and substance of the emails. They were not in accordance with the high priority we place on care for Americans abroad," a State Department spokesperson said. "The U.S. Department of State and our embassies and consulates abroad have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas. As permitted by law, we make every effort to share information with families in as timely a manner as possible."

The spokesperson added that whenever a U.S. citizen is detained, they seek immediate access to the individual.

Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Massachusetts, who served as the U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa under former President Donald Trump, told NBC10 Boston that he would have handled it differently.

"We would have dispatched a team, certainly, to make sure that they were getting proper representation," said Brown. "Making sure that that citizen was safe in that country in that circumstance."

Brown was critical of the U.S. Embassy's response to Pfau's attempts to get answers.

"If they're not doing their jobs and they're not communicating, then respectfully, I think they're failing at the number one job, which is to take care of U.S. citizens and their families and make sure that's an open and continuous line of communication," he said.

Pfau said she hopes the embassy does better with the other detained Americans.

"There needs to be more assistance to their safety -- their health, their mental health and their physical health, and just their general well-being," she said. "Even if it's a short sentence, there needs to be a visit."

Bryan Hagerich of Pennsylvania will be in court in Providenciales Friday morning. He was charged with possession of ammunition in February. He said the bullets were in his bag from a previous hunting trip. His lawyer will present their case and a judge will deliver a sentence, which could be anything from time served up to 12 years in prison.

Turks and Caicos' attorney general and the director of public prosecutions issued a statement last week saying the islands' firearm ordinance "requires the Supreme Court to impose a mandatory minimum sentence and fine for certain firearm offenses, except in circumstances where the court finds that there are exceptional circumstances."

The statement went on to add that there have been five separate cases within a two-year period where the Supreme Court on the islands have found exceptional circumstances, and only four of the offenders were fined and one was given custodial sentence below the mandatory minimum. Grim's eight-month sentence was below the mandatory minimum of 12 years in prison.