Laura Silsby, 40, center, and Charisa Coulter, 24, left, both of Meridian, Idaho, are escorted out of the court building in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010. The ten Americans detained in Haiti for trying to take 33 children out of the country after the earthquake, were charged with child kidnapping and criminal association, after a judge found sufficient evidence to file the charges, according to their Haitian lawyer Edwin Coq. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
On January 29, 2010, a group of ten American Baptist missionaries from Idaho attempted to cross the Haiti-Dominican Republic border with 33 Haitian children. The group, known as the New Life Children’s Refuge,[1] did not have proper authorization for transporting the children and were arrested on child trafficking charges.
The missionaries denied any wrongdoing and claimed that they were rescuing orphans and leading them to a Dominican hotel which was being transformed into an orphanage. Nine of the ten missionaries were later released but NLCR founder Laura Silsby remained incarcerated in Haiti. Her trial began on May 13 and the prosecution sought a 6-month prison term. On May 17, she was found guilty and sentenced to the time served in jail prior to the trial.
So she ended up getting 4 months for child trafficking.