Scott Hapgood failed to appear before the Magistrate’s Court in Anguilla in November 2019, as scheduled, and has been deemed a fugitive of justice. However, it has come to light via thehour.com, an online news outlet, that Hapgood will have an opportunity to tell his story in a US courtroom.
Scott Hapgood will likely take the stand to tell his story if the lawsuit he filed against the Anguillian resort, where he has been accused of killing a hotel worker goes to trial, his attorney told a California civil court judge, the report noted.
“My expectation is that Mr. Hapgood will testify,” said attorney Thomas Watson, representing Hapgood and his family in the lawsuit filed against Auberge Resorts. “He has repeatedly maintained that he is completely innocent of all allegations.”
The Anguillian manslaughter charge against Hapgood has not moved forward even though a magistrate has ruled there is enough evidence for the case to proceed, Watson told Marin County civil court Judge James Chou during a brief status conference on the lawsuit against the California-based Auberge Resorts.
“There have been no further updates nor have any documents been released to the public,” Watson said.
The Anguilla Attorney General, Dwight Horsford has not said how he plans to proceed following the magistrate’s ruling.
The federal wrongful death lawsuit filed against Hapgood, by Mitchel’s estate, is also temporarily stalled after a judge issued a stay last month, Watson said.
Even with the lack of documentation in the criminal case, Watson told Chou he wanted to move forward with depositions with an eye toward scheduling a trial for the end of the year.
But staging a trial that soon is likely not feasible, according to attorney Michael Cooper who is representing Auberge in the lawsuit Hapgood filed against the company. Witnesses in Anguilla may be reluctant to talk during a deposition if there continues to be a gag order in the criminal case, Cooper said.
“We’re having a lot of problems getting documents, as you know, from the criminal proceedings,” Cooper told Chou. “I don’t know how we’re going to set a trial date. I don’t think we’ll get through them [the documents] by the end of this year.”
But Watson said he wanted to take the Auberge case to trial before the criminal proceedings play out in Anguilla.
However, Chou said he was reluctant to set a trial date. He explained that while the federal wrongful death lawsuit will not affect the Auberge complaint, the criminal proceedings against Hapgood would have an impact.
Chou asked for both sides to consider mediation and provide an update to him on the status of depositions and the criminal case on June 8.
Hapgood and his family were on vacation on the Caribbean island in April 2019 when Mitchel showed up at their hotel room to fix a sink that had not been reported broken, according to documents filed in the Auberge lawsuit.
After Hapgood allowed Mitchel inside the room, the hotel worker (Mitchel) allegedly pulled out a knife, demanded money and then “physically attacked” the Darien resident as his two young daughters were nearby, the lawsuit claims.
Hapgood fought the younger man who was “biting, clawing and hitting” during the attack, his attorneys said.
Hapgood was able to restrain Mitchel but hotel employees who were summoned by his daughters initially did not try to intervene – and did not call police or an ambulance until nearly 40 minutes had elapsed, the lawsuit stated. Hotel security eventually took over restraining Mitchel until police arrived, the lawsuit stated.
Mitchel’s family claimed in their wrongful death lawsuit that Hapgood kept his arm on Mitchel’s neck, cutting off his airway for an extended period of time, which caused his death. However, Hapgood’s lawsuit claims Mitchel’s cause of death was attributed to a cocaine overdose based on an Anguillian toxicology report, the online news outlet reported.
