The story of the 10 Baptists from Idaho accused of child kidnapping in Haiti reveals yet another corrupt chapter. This time, Edwin Coq, the Haitian lawyer for the Americans, has been fired for trying to bribe the missionaries out of jail.

The Haitian lawyer, Edwin Coq, denied the allegation. He said the $60,000 he requested from the Americans' families was his fee.

Jorge Puello, the attorney in the neighboring Dominican Republic retained by relatives of the 10 American missionaries after their arrest last week, told the Associated Press that he fired Coq on Friday night. He had hired Coq to represent the detainees at Haitian legal proceedings.

Coq orchestrated "some kind of extortion with government officials" that would have led to the release of nine of the 10 missionaries, Puello charged. Source: Haitian lawyer for jailed US missionaries fired, Associated Press

"He had some people inside the court that asked him for money, and he was part of this scheme," Puello said. Coq denied the requested $60,000 payment amounted to a bribe.

"I have worked for 10 people for four days working all hours," he said. "Look at what hour I'm working now, responding to these calls. I have the right to this money." On Friday, Coq had told the AP that he was working for no fee. Source: Haitian lawyer for jailed US missionaries fired, Associated Press

Edwin Coq spoke out last week stating that group leader, Laura Silsby deceived the others into believing that papers were in order for the children to be transported. My problem with that blanket excuse for the other nine Americans involved is that they stood by silently although they knew that many of the children were not orphans. And I wonder if they knew that no orphanage even existed and the kids were to be taken to a hotel.

NBC news is reporting that the missionaries are now reaching out to the media for help:

NBC News reported Saturday that there are divisions within the jailed group. It said some of the missionaries handed an NBC producer a note through bars of their holding cell earlier in the day that listed the names of all of them but Silsby and her former nanny and partner in the orphanage, Charisa Coulter.

"We only came as volunteers. We had nothing to do with any documents and have been lied to," NBC quoted the note as saying. "Please we fear our lives." Source: Haitian lawyer for jailed US missionaries fired, Associated Press

Are the 10 simply misunderstood "do-gooders" on a mission that got out of control? Or could they be more accurately characterized as arrogant Americans, swooping in to break up real-life families in zealous pursuit of some fantasy vision of giving desperately poor children a better life? What do YOU think?