The Haitian evacuee who caused a massive meltdown at JFK Saturday afternoon when he strolled through a door into a secure area says he was "lost" and "just looking for a cab." Jules Bouloute told police he didn't see the no entry sign. "I was looking for the entrance to find a taxi [and] somebody told me to go through the door," he said, according to court papers. "I went through and the alarm went off." Bouloute—who escaped from earthquake-devastated Haiti via the Dominican Republic—may have been a bit distracted, but should he pay for the cost and inconvenience he inflicted on passengers, staff and the state?
The Haitian native has been released without bail on charges of criminal trespass and criminal tampering. Still, he and his lawyer maintain his motives weren't malicious. "He just walked through the wrong door," lawyer Scott Dufault told the Washington Post. He added that the charges were "ridiculous" and that his client doesn't speak English well. A neighbor agrees. "He's not a bad person," said Saul Sanon who lives in the same Canarsie building that Bouloute occupies part of the year. "I don't know exactly what happened. I think he just made a mistake. Probably he was affected by the situation in Haiti."
Quake or no quake, there's no denying that Bouloute's little mistake had huge consequences. "As a result of the defendant's actions, thousands of people were required to evacuate and to be re-screened by TSA, causing substantial delays in the airlines' schedules," District Attorney Richard A. Browne said in a statement. It's estimated travelers in terminal 8 were delayed two and a half hours. Another party who knows the trespasser well, scolded him for this transgression, "I don't know why he would do that in the airport," said his ex-wife. "He knows what he should do."
