It was a set-up. For on that fateful day, Cathcart was arrested on four counts of child molestation and it took almost seven years for him to be cleared of those charges. A member of St. Timothy’s Catholic Church, Cathcart originally went to Mexico to investigate a possible misappropriation of his church’s donated funds by Gabriel Diego Garcia, director of the Door of Faith orphanage in Ensenada. After seeing Garcia drive a brand new Bronco and wear what appeared to be expensive looking clothes, Cathcart demanded to see the financial records of the establishment, an act that resulted in him being promptly escorted off the property.

But two weeks later, an American volunteer from the orphanage called Cathcart at his California home, claiming one of the children had been in an automobile accident and might not live. The child’s only request was to see Cathcart. He traveled back to Mexico and into that fateful parking lot, where plainclothes police officers, armed with machine guns, arrested him.

“He was lured down,” said attorney William Bollard, in a phone interview from his Irvine office.

Six years, nine months and 1 day later, Cathcart was free. In that time six of his grandchildren were born, two sons were married, the new St. Timothy’s Catholic Church building was built with funds he had helped to raise, and his father had passed away. One would think his faith and outlook on life would have been shaken to the very core. “It makes it stronger,” Cathcart says.

On May 28th, at 10:00 pm, the order was issued for Cathcart’s release. “I got the call at 10:30 to come pick him up,” remembers Bollard, who rushed over to the prison in his truck so quickly that guards thought he was staging a prison breakout and threatened him with machine guns.

“There are hundreds of Mexican citizens who have been framed,” Cathcart reported. “Good people who can’t afford lawyers.” Yet, through it all, Cathcart believes there is a positive side to all of this. “I want to make people aware of how corrupt the Baja system is,” he explains. “How dangerous it can be to go down there just to have fun.”

Credits - Video Courtesy of William Bollard, www.jbblaw.us, and NBC Dateline. TEXT excerpt from http://www.cnsnews.com/Nation/Archive/200106/NAT20010604a.html