Costa Rica officials will hold U.S. citizen and Louisiana native John Stanton Pearson for two months pending extradition on charges related to sexual battery of a juvenile in his home state.
He was apprehended Saturday in Manuel Antonio, on the Central Pacific coast, after leading police on a 15-hour chase. According to the daily La Nación, police had Pearson in handcuffs when he fled into the woods. He hid behind he homes of residents in the area until police persuaded him to turn himself in.
The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana had issued a warrant for his arrest nearly two years ago. It wasn’t until a recent tip that led police first to Panama City and then to Costa Rica’s Central Pacific that authorities were able to track him down.
