Ramon Cervantes Denies Involvement in Allegedly Libellous Recording
Ramon Cervantes Junior is accused slandering his political rival, Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega of Orange Walk North and today the P.U.P. standard bearer got a chance to tell his side of the story in court. But contrary to popular belief, “Monchi” says that he only listened twice to the recording of a conversation between his mother, Vilma and the alleged mastermind of the father’s murder, Manuel “El Pelon” Castillo. And apart from accompanying his family to drop it off to police investigators, he had nothing to do with its broadcast and distribution. Monchi maintains that the decision was made by the rest of his family, without his input, and further says that if he had it to do again; he would not have supported the broadcast because of the charges of libel and slander against Vega’s character. Cervantes Junior denies that the airing during a memorial service for his late father last November was in any way intended to harm Vega or damage his reputation and is not even sure he believes Castillo’s claims – at least, he says he has no hard evidence to prove them. But the actual recording is nowhere in evidence and no further witnesses after Cervantes were called for either side as the case concluded before Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin this afternoon. Cervantes Junior’s attorney, Senior Counsel Said Musa, told News Five that the denial goes straight to the heart of his clients’ defense, and the other side was able to poke no holes in it.
Said Musa, Attorney for Ramon Cervantes Jr.
“It’s important because he is the one that has been brought to court. And what he has been saying all along is that it was a decision of his family, not himself to have this memorial service.”
Reporter
“What if there are those of us that say that that is somewhat ridiculous because Mister Cervantes is a public figure, he is a great decision maker in his family…so it is somewhat a ludicrous assertion to say he had no involvement with the decision to broadcast or to air that to the public?”
Said Musa
“Well of course if you want to argue that position then you should have represented Mister Vega in the case, but that too is ridiculous because you see what the Vega attorney is trying to argue is that my client, Mister Cervantes, had some motive to want to harm Mister Vega because they are political opponents. That is ridiculous. As he himself clearly pointed out, if that was his motive, he would have made much more of this tape. The truth of the matter is that he told the absolute truth when he said we have no hard evidence of whether or not what Castillo is saying is true or false. That is the bottom-line.”