HOLLADAY — Linda Schofield has thought a great deal about the meaning of freedom this Independence Day.
Her husband John lost his June 15 — arrested and imprisoned in India on criminal charges over a business contract dispute — and she's been trying to get it back for him ever since.
"The whole thing is just . . . it's so weird. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a Lifetime movie," Linda Schofield said Thursday. "I realize what a wonderful life I've been able to enjoy because I'm free."
Linda and John Schofield's story reads like a television movie, complete with allegations of business corruption, bribery and threats, a Third World prison and a wife who wonders if she will ever see her husband again.
It began 18 months ago when John Schofield, 63, went to India to develop that county's fledgling call-center business industry.
Linda Schofield, 64, said she was always nervous about John going to India. It was a two-part concern because John left the United States shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and because India and Pakistan were thought to be on the brink of a war, Linda Schofield said.
Still, she supported him and was silent about her fears.
"This was his passion," she said. "You can't tell someone to stay at home because you are afraid."
Among John Schofield's numerous clients was a company called MS Geo Connect Ltd., with whom he had signed a one-year contract last fall. But the relationship wasn't a good one, Linda Schofield said. According to John, Geo Connect failed to fulfill its obligations under the agreement, so the contract was terminated.
But at a June 19 court hearing in New Delhi, the Associated Press reports that prosecutors said Geo Connect claims to have provided more than $2 million in services to John Schofield's company, TRITECH Information Strategies. The company also contends John Schofield paid them with a $200,000 check that bounced because it was written on a closed account.
Prosecutors have charged John Schofield with fraud and criminal breach of trust. He could spend as long as seven years in jail if convicted, the AP story states. Thus far, bail has been denied by judges.
Linda Schofield said her husband, who studied law for three years, has accountants and attorneys in India who helped negotiate and write business contracts for TRITECH.
"John may have made mistakes, but they were not intentional," she said.
At best, the matter is a civil contract dispute, which under the contract signed by both TRITECH and Geo Connect, must be settled through arbitration.
Linda Schofield fears — and said that friends and business associates in India are telling her — that her husband is the victim of a blackmail attempt by those who own Geo Connect. For one thing, she said, someone has drained $600,000 from the Schofields' bank accounts using an ATM card confiscated at the time of John's arrest.
And then there are the phone calls in the middle of the night. The voices are always different, but the request is always the same: put $2 million in a certain bank account and John will be set free.
"I just hang up," said Linda Schofield, who has had about half-a-dozen such calls. "It's extortion."
Linda Schofield is in contact with the U.S. Embassy. She also been trying to get help through Utah's congressional delegation, the U.S. State Department and the Maine congressional delegation. The Schofields moved from Maine to Utah about a year ago, Linda Schofield said.
No one from the State Department nor the embassy in New Delhi was able to confirm their dealings with the Schofields for the Deseret Morning News on Friday.
Over the past three weeks, Linda has had only two brief communications with her husband, a short phone call on June 16 and about 10 days later, a faxed handwritten note, which Linda believes an embassy worker may have snuck out of prison after visiting John.
"He just said how much he loves me and that that is what is keeping him going," she said.
She knows only a little about John's current existence, she said. She knows he is in a two-man cell that only has one bed and so John sleeps on the floor. He has been in and out of the prison hospital, but access to the medication he needs to quell an illness that causes seizures has been inconsistent. He has been denied food and clean water and was not allowed to bathe for more than a week, she said. He is allowed visits, by his attorney, and embassy staff, but those are sometimes cancelled or denied for unexplained reasons, she added.
So far, John has had three attorneys. The first was appointed by police and tried to extort bribe money from John. The second was inexperienced and tried to get more than $2,000 in daily fees from the couple. Now, Linda has now hired V.K. Agarwal, an Indian attorney recommended by the embassy who specializes in handling cases involving the blackmail, extortion and harassment of U.S. citizens by Indian business.
"He says not to worry," she said, rolling her eyes.
In the midst of it all, Linda Schofield could find herself without a home. She and John were in the midst of purchasing a home in Federal Heights. But since John's arrest and the loss of their assets, the bank has begun foreclosure proceedings, Linda Schofield said. The lease on their rented condo is up at the end of July.
Emotionally overloaded, Linda admits there are times when she doesn't know how she will go on.
"But I have to be OK," she said. "I'm all he has and I will fight to the bitter end for my husband."
Contributing: Associated PressE-MAIL: jdobner@desnews.com