January 26, 2008
Lost In Paradise
Who Murdered A Beautiful Peace Corps Volunteer In Tonga?
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Deborah Gardner was a beautiful young American Peace Corps volunteer from Tacoma, Wash. (Frank Bevacqua)
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She was murdered while on assignment in the South Pacific island nation of Tonga. (Frank Bevacqua)
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Dennis Priven, a fellow Peace Corps worker from Brooklyn, N.Y., was charged with her murder by Tongan police.
(Frank Bevacqua)
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"American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps"
by Philip Weiss
by Philip Weiss
But there was no hiding the news in Tonga. "I think the Tongans were very angry that we had brought this terrible thing into the country," says Wilson.
Priven was going on hunger strikes every time the Tongans tried to move him to the maximum security prison outside town. "He used these hunger strikes as the Tongan officials understood as 'He's manipulating us. But we can't let him die on our watch, because we'll be blamed,' " says Weiss.
Tonga wasted no time, and Priven was in the dock less than two months after Gardner’s brutal murder. "It was a great curiosity and the courthouse was jammed with students of Dennis, students of Debbie," says Weiss.
But there were no Peace Corps volunteers present, since George advised them to stay away. But she was present every day of the trial. Nathanson was also in the courtroom as part of his Peace Corps job at the Tonga Chronicle. He was the only reporter at the trial, which was one too many for George. "Mary George didn't want him going near the story," says Weiss.
Some of Priven’s friends didn’t want Nathanson telling the world either. "They sort of jumped on me about my coverage of the trial, that it was no good for the Peace Corps program. It certainly wasn't good for Dennis. After all, Dennis is one of us," recalls Nathanson. "And my response was, 'Well, what about Debbie Gardner, you know? Wasn't she one of us, too?' 'Well, she's gone. It's unfortunate. We have to worry about Dennis.' "
Prosecutor David Tupou never had tried a big murder case, but he was very confident. He had all the evidence from the crime scene, and eyewitnesses who had seen Priven leaving Gardner's house.
"They thought they had a slam dunk," says Weiss. But the defense had its own secret weapon: Clive Edwards, the greatest criminal defense lawyer in Tonga. He was paid by the Peace Corps to defend Priven.
Edwards says Priven refused to speak to him during the entire case and trial: "I thought there was something wrong with him." And Priven did nothing to correct that impression, and he sat stone-faced while his lawyer now simply dismissed the evidence as meaningless.
"There was no clear-cut evidence that he was, actually, responsible for the stabbing," says Edwards. "His knife was produced. But his knife had been left there on other occasions."
The defense also had help from a bumbling police investigation. "They took crime-scene photos the next day, and failed to check the old camera, and they were empty [no film]," says Weiss. The only crime-scene photos were taken six days after the crime - and after friends had cleaned up the blood-soaked hut.
But the prosecution did have its eyewitness, To'a Pasa, who was 16 at the time of the trial. "They'd been trying everything ... and I said, 'No way. That's him I saw,' " recalls To'a. "It's, you know, I won't change my mind because it's the truth."
"It was the most dramatic moment in the trial. And he was unswerving throughout in his knowledge that that was Dennis Priven," says Weiss.
Faced with a convincing eyewitness, the defense suddenly changed its strategy. Priven would plead insanity, although no lawyer had ever argued an insanity defense in a Tongan court.
"They used words like 'possessed by devils' because the jury was a group of seven Tongan farmers, with elementary school education largely. They didn’t speak English," says Weiss.
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In my opinion... This cases should be reopen once again in Tonga. I fell sad about this, And my heart goes out to Deb''s Family. I am from Tonga, I believe that this person who did this to Deb. He will be ill for long-time to come...
That poor woman, and her poor family. This makes me physically ill...
The government hired him at Social Security after knowing he was a murderer.
- by lauraparis22 January 27, 2008 1:16 AM EST
- I am shocked by the response of the Peace Corps to the murder of Deb Gardner and wonder .... if it had been Deb who murdered Dennis, would it have been so easy for them to sweep it under the rug?
- Reply to this comment
See all 17 CommentsWhat kind of response is, "I''m very sorry for the pain of Deb''s family..." but her murderer is one of us? A "death in the family?" Not, "a MURDER in the family?"
Join America''s PEACE Corps: Where PEACE is more important than LIFE and you can MURDER with Impugnity!