Security company offers misguided reward

Again, there is no good news to report tonight on the manhunt for Patrick Robateau and Leslie Pipersburg, the men who gunned down four victims on Tuesday night in Belize City. In fact, not only have the fugitives managed to elude police, but it appears that the latest effort to promote their capture could backfire should they ever reach a courtroom. In a release late this afternoon, the K.B.H. security company, employers of two of the murder victims, announced it was offering a reward totally separate from the twelve thousand dollars already offered by the police and Chamber of Commerce for information leading to the capture of the killers. What K.B.H. is offering is totally different. They will pay ten thousand dollars upon the conviction of the murderers…and who are they paying? Two thousand, five hundred goes to the D.P.P.’s office, twenty-five hundred to the police and five thousand to the witnesses for the prosecution. While we must applaud the underlying sentiment of K.B.H., we must point out that it is both unethical and illegal to pay a witness for his or her testimony and would also render that testimony inadmissible in a trial, thus increasing the possibility of an acquittal. We referred the matter to one high-ranking member of the legal community who offered the comment: “Why stop at the prosecution and witnesses; better you just pay the judge.” It is hoped that the company will put their money into the police fund and withdraw their present offer, which can only be described at best as misguided, at worst as beyond stupid.