Two police officers arrested

The Belize Police Department has once again been forced to arrest two in their ranks following separate incidents over the weekend. Constable Barrington Montero, attached to the Belize City Patrol Branch, was charged with two counts of theft in connection with allegations of embezzlement at the law offices of Barrow and Williams. Montero, his sister Dorla Pickwood, the bookkeeper and messenger Franz Moguel were arrested after Rodwell Williams discovered that over fifty thousand dollars was missing. Investigations revealed that check amounts were altered after being signed by Williams. Seven of the falsified Belize Bank checks were made out to Pickwood, two were in Montero’s name and three were made out to Moguel. Montero received bail at two thousand five hundred dollars, Moguel at ten thousand and Pickwood at forty-five thousand dollars. All three met bail.

Another officer from Belize City, Deon Vernon, a constable attached to the Prosecution Unit was arrested on Saturday and charged with theft and harm after a report was made by his wife. She says she was assaulted by her husband while walking on Kelly Street on the twenty-fourth of February. When she returned home later that day she found over a hundred dollars in cash and clothing missing from the house. A recommendation was made for Deon Vernon’s dismissal after disciplinary hearings on March fifteenth found him guilty of absence from duty since February ninth.