An Indiana family of missionaries that fled to the Caribbean over COVID-19 is now facing mounting legal woes and financial ruin since investigators found an unlicensed firearm and a trove of ammunition in their possessions.
Jason and Jennifer Grogg and their two teen daughters were taken into custody on April 17 when authorities on the island of Dominica found the gun and ammunition inside the 40-foot shipping container the family used to store their belongings, the Indianapolis Star reported.
After seven days in jail, Jason pleaded guilty to possessing the firearm without a license and paid a $9,250 fine in order to secure the release of his wife and daughters, he told the outlet.
“My wife and my two daughters [Hannah, then 18, and Gracia, then 16] were essentially in a cell that was four feet by less than 10 feet for seven days. It was just, it was incredibly inhumane,” Jason said of the ordeal.
When Jason, Jennifer, and the older girls were first arrested and hit with multiple charges – including arms trafficking and evasion of custom duties – the two younger children were taken into custody by the Commonwealth and sent to a home for neglected children, the IndyStar explained.
“They said if you plead guilty to this ammunition and gun charges then then we will let your wife and your kids go so it was it was a matter of I had to do that— I had to plead guilty to those charges,” Jason said – though he still disputed Dominica’s allegations exactly what gun paraphernalia was found.
During the search of the family’s rental home in Dominica’s Belfast area and the shipping container, investigators found a Glock 9 mm pistol, 9 mm and 20 mm ammunition, four M16 magazines with 30 rounds of ammunition, and 17 20-gage shells, Dominica News Online said at the time, citing local law enforcement.
Jason, however, insisted that the officials only uncovered “some miscellaneous ammunition” and a handgun that he planned to secure a permit for.
It was not immediately clear why authorities were searching the family’s possessions in the first place.
On May 4, just a few days after his guilty plea, Jason was rearrested by customs officers at Douglas Charles Airport, Dominica News Online reported.
Jason was in jail for another week on charges of evading duties on items his family brought into the country, the IndyStar explained.
He is due back in court in February 2024.
The Groggs’ legal woes came two years after Jason and Jennifer – who describe themselves as Christian missionaries – moved their family to Dominica from Logansport amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We left the United States for a very particular reason when it came to the COVID nonsense. But we also saw very clearly this is the path that God was wanting us to take for purposes unknown,” Jason told the Star of the move.
Back in Indiana, Jason was a firearms instructor and a member of the National Rifle Association, the outlet added.
Even before the family decided to decamp to the East Caribbean, they had written in a newsletter to friends and family that they felt the expansion of LGBTQ+ rights meant that the US had rejected God.
“We were feeling like God was leading us out of the country to go somewhere else. He led us to the Commonwealth of Dominica,” Jason told the IndyStar.
The Groggs decided to decamp to the Dominica based on a recommendation from an associate in Florida, and their own research that connected them with Feed My Sheep, a faith-based nonprofit that supports youth in crisis on the island.
Feed My Sheep severed ties with Jason Grogg on April 11 – just a few days before the authorities raided the family’s belongings – due to “his recent abusive & fraudulent behavior,” the organization said in a statement.
As he awaits progress in his case, Jason is required to sign the local bail book three times per week, he told the IndyStar.
“The government of Dominica has my passport. And I have to go, I have to walk down to the nearest town, sign the bail book three times a week — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday when there’s people signing the books who are out on bail for murder,” he lamented to the outlet.
“They’re signing it like maybe once every other week. It’s clearly disproportionate,” he insisted.
The family has also eaten through their savings covering legal fees, the frustrated patriarch said.
“My wife and my children, they all have their passports to leave the country if they needed to like in an emergency. Because the government has been taking so long and absorbing so much of my funds, we have no way of at this point, unless we had family pay for tickets, there’s no way for us to leave right now,” Jason said.
The US State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs confirmed that it was aware of the Groggs’ arrests, but did not provide further information, the IndyStar said.