ST. THOMAS — Delroy “Ital” Anthony wakes up around 4 o’clock most mornings. He does some exercises, usually a little yoga, before walking from his house down to the Salt Pond on St. John and back.
But on the morning of June 28, Anthony didn’t take his normal walk. He needed to be in town early to finish setting up his booth for St. John’s Food Fair, as he’s done this time of year for the past three decades.
He arrived in Cruz Bay around 7 o’clock and headed to the park in front of the ferry dock.
Two hours later, Anthony was handcuffed and on his way to a jail cell on St. Thomas.
His arrest shows an intersection where disjointed systems, word of mouth customs, and modern-day policing collided. And Anthony was the casualty.
According to the probable cause fact sheet submitted by the arresting officer, Khalil Tatum, police received a call around 8:30 a.m. from Kayla Fessale, an employee of the Department of Sports, Parks and Recreation, reporting a disturbance in Franklin A. Powell Sr. Park in Cruz Bay involving a man who had erected a tent, placed items on display, and was refusing to relocate.
The man was 64-year-old Anthony, known as “Ital,” a culture bearer for the island of St. John. He wears the title proudly, going to schools to teach children about the island and culture inhabited by his family for generations. He’s known by locals and tourists alike for selling his handmade cultural crafts — calabash maracas, jumbie bead necklaces, bird feeders crafted from coconuts — since he was in his 20s.
For Anthony, this is part of a larger mission to carry on a culture and community he sees slipping away. So, when Fessale told him he was in the wrong spot that morning, a spot he’s known to have occupied for at least a decade, Anthony refused to move.
“She just said, ‘Hey, you gotta go. Out, you gotta move.’ To me, it was rude. I'm an elder,” Anthony told WTJX following his advice of rights hearing on June 30. “I tell her I pay for this spot here. This is my spot I set up every year. I'm one of the persons that represent the culture here in St. John and I'm not moving any place. So, she said she was gon call the police. I tell her go ahead and call the police.”
Fessale declined to comment on the situation when contacted by WTJX.
When Officer Tatum arrived at the park, Fessale reportedly told him that she was the person who issues permits for DSPR and that Anthony did not have a permit to erect a tent in that location, as the spot had been given to another vendor. Officers then ordered Anthony to relocate his tent, but again, he refused.
“I tell them, ‘no, I sticking right here to this spot where I’m supposed to be at, where it was agreed on from the person representing the St. John Carnival Committee,’” Anthony said.
Anthony said he received verbal confirmation from Leona Smith, assistant director of Festivals within the Department of Tourism, that he could have his usual spot.
“I reclarified with her earlier during the week that it was gonna be alright; there wasn’t gonna be no problem,” Anthony said following the hearing. “And when I set up there, it still was a problem.”
However, Smith denied ever having the conversation with Anthony.
“I did not tell Mr. Anthony anything,” Smith told WTJX. “I had no conversation with him prior saying where he could go.”
But Anthony is adamant that this conversation happened. He said he spoke to Smith when he saw her in the yard of the Department of Tourism office the week leading up to Food Fair.
“I confirmed with her and as she was walking away, I tried to grab her full attention, and she said, ‘don’t worry about it, you alright, you good man, don’t worry about it,’” he said.
Anthony said confusion over booth arrangements is a recurring issue for vendors at St. John’s Food Fair. He’s had issues in the past with people trying to set up in the spot he has traditionally occupied, he said, which is why he made sure to speak to Smith.
When asked about the reason for Anthony’s arrest, Smith said she wasn’t involved.
“He is a vendor who has been there for the last 25 or 30 years, so I don’t know why it became a problem now,” she said.
When police officers arrived, Anthony said they asked to see documentation showing he had paid to be there. Anthony said he showed the officers all his paperwork, including receipts for the $125 vendor’s fee for Food Fair, but that they ordered him to move because he did not have a particular paper that identified the location he had set up in as his spot. Anthony still refused to move.
Anthony was then informed he was under arrest for failure to obey a lawful order. He was handcuffed, advised of his rights, and taken to the Alexander Farrelly Justice Complex for processing.
“I felt like I was in chains, man, like I actually was handcuffed,” Anthony said. “And it really is a psychological effect. I couldn’t sleep well after that. It’s still affecting me up to now. I stand up for my rights, and that was my right to stand as an individual when I know I had paid.”
Anthony said he feels like a casualty of a disorganized system. He said arts and crafts vendors have received a piece of paper confirming their booth spot some years, but that other years it has just been relayed verbally during a meeting held beforehand. Anthony said he wasn’t given that piece of paper this year, nor did he think there had been a meeting.
But Smith told WTJX there had, in fact, been a meeting and that Anthony was not informed of it because he only applied after the meeting took place. Asked when the meeting was held, Smith said she did not recall.
Smith also said her department doesn’t have authority over what happens in the Cruz Bay park, where arts and crafts vendors set up during Food Fair.
“The Department of Sports, Parks and Recreation leases the park to other vendors, so we don’t have a say,” Smith said, adding that, depending on space, DSPR will usually give the Division of Festivals around 10 spots for vendors in the park. “Any empty spaces available, we request the extra spaces for other art and crafts vendors.”
When asked about the system for assigning booth locations in the park, Smith said vendors are shown their spot after they pay. Anthony’s receipts show that he paid his vendor’s fee on June 13 – two weeks before Food Fair – but he said he was never shown a spot.
Officer Tatum refuted Anthony’s claim about receiving this documentation proving he had paid to be there. He stated that while Anthony told officers he had paid for a spot, he did not provide them with “any documents showing same,” according to the probable cause fact sheet.
Anthony’s court-appointed attorney challenged the probable cause fact sheet during his advice of rights hearing, putting Officer Tatum on the stand for questioning. While under oath, Officer Tatum maintained that Anthony did not show him any documentation proving he could be there or had paid to be there.
“He lied in there,” Anthony said following the hearing. “I did show them once they asked for it; I went into my bag and got it. When I was arrested, that information was still resting right there. They even got it and put it with my belongings.”
However, when Anthony’s attorney attempted to show this paperwork in court, Magistrate Judge Paula Norkaitis cut her off, stating that the paperwork was irrelevant to the issue at hand.
“This is about respect,” Norkaitis said, explaining that the hearing was to determine if there was probable cause to charge Anthony with disobeying a lawful order, not whether Anthony had a right to be there.
Anthony’s attorney argued that the paperwork was relevant, and shared that the governor’s deputy chief of staff, Kevin Rodriguez, had even called Anthony to apologize for what he reportedly said was a misunderstanding. However, Norkaitis found probable cause to charge Anthony with interfering with an officer discharging his duties, telling Anthony’s attorney that he would be able to defend himself on those points down the line.
Anthony and his partner, Margaret Bradley, said the call from Rodriguez had left them under the impression the charges would be dropped.
“He basically said they apologize, and they’ll take care of it,” Anthony said when asked about the phone call, adding that Rodriguez said an individual should not have interfered as Smith is responsible for the vending part of St. John Festival.
Rodriguez did not return a request for comment as of press time.
When it comes to his defense, Anthony said he plans to fight the charge all the way.
“I’m not trying to prove anything by having a spot. It’s not about a spot. It’s about a people,” Anthony said. “Justice must be dealt with.”
Anthony’s next court appearance is scheduled for August 1 at the Superior Court Magistrate’s Division in Barbel Plaza on St. Thomas.
