Once-missing boater denies faking his death

PANAMA CITY -- A man who vanished Oct. 7 while boating with friends in the Gulf of Mexico denies that he faked his death to escape sex charges.

Steven Haun, 32, of Laguna Beach, and his girlfriend were returned Wednesday to the Florida Panhandle from Indiana where they were arrested. Both are being held at the Bay County Jail.

Haun said he left town to see a real estate agent, a doctor and his girlfriend, Tammy Daggett, 35, of Greenfield, Ind. He skipped a court appearance the day after his boating companions reported him missing.

"I didn't fake my death. I didn't go to Indiana to escape criminal charges. This has been blown out of proportion," Haun told the News Herald of Panama City.

Haun, convicted of child molestation in Indiana in 1995, is charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition for allegedly exposing himself to two young girls, failure to register as a sex offender and two counts of failure to appear in court.

Daggett is charged with being an accessory to lewd and lascivious exhibition after the fact and failure to appear on an unrelated bad check charge.

Haun said he drove to Indiana because he had just found out Daggett was pregnant, needed treatment for a foot problem and wanted help selling his property.

He said he was unaware he was reported missing or wanted for failure to appear in court until Indiana state police arrested him Friday in Indianapolis.

Haun said he fell off a raft being towed behind a boat when the driver, Steven Liford, sped up.

"They just kept on going," Haun said. "I didn't hang out and wait for sharks to attack me."

Haun said he swam to shore, went to a bar where he had a beer and left town. He said he never spoke to his friends on the boat because he was angry that they had left him in the water.

He said he had told several people he was going to Indiana, so the trip was not a secret. Seeing his pregnant girlfriend was more important than the court hearing, Haun said.

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