Cop walks away from extortion charges
Andre Almendarez
A police officer, who was interdicted for extortion of a hundred dollars US, walked free today. Twenty-five year old Andre Almendarez was charged on January twelfth, 2009 for allegedly extorting the money from a Salvadoran Consultant, but it was dismissed when he appeared before Supreme Court Justice Adolph Lucas Sr., this morning. No reason was given during the session, but our court reporter later learnt that the dismissal came after the prosecutor and the police were unable to locate the complainant, twenty-seven year old Roberto Ponce. Ponce had reported to police Internal Affairs that a police officer and two BDF soldiers stopped him at Mile four and a half on the Western Highway. He says the policeman asked for his insurance records but when he presented his papers the cops told him he could still be charged and fined five hundred dollars. The officer allegedly asked Ponce for money and he handed over the hundred dollars US. Police responding to the complaint, found the money inside a bag at the checkpoint.
Too easy to beat the rap in Belize — and we have one more dirty cop, still carrying a gun and a badge.
Sounds like another case of witness intimidation. Let’s hope they keep him out of a police uniform.
Evidence found, but still need a witness…..isn’t time to change this stupid, old, banana republic system?
soooo if they found the money money why didnt they charge him still? or atleast fire him from his position before a larger crime takes place later on.
The laws need to be changed. the claimant is not a Belizean maybe he was passing through. the courts cant expect for a person to stay so long in the country to wait for a court case. why wasn’t his statement entered into evidence and with the money found on the scene.. that should be enough… this is BS.
There needs to be a change in the system wherby sworn statements are valid even in the absence of the witnesses.
But check this, sometime ago a respected justice released a murderer because he ruled that the lineup was unfair in that the accused was the only one with a tatto over his left eye. Where would the police find other citizens with tatoos over there left eye. What if the accused had a missing arm. Should we chop off the arms of persons in the lineup? The statement of the victim should suffice in the case of unique discrptions of assailants eg,”the man whe rape me have one eye”, or the man whe tief me have 3 finger missing on ih left hand”. My question is why is a lineup neccessary any way when there is definitive and unique description of the perpetrator by witnesses. I believe that the honorable justice erred in the case where he released a murderer because the other persons in the line up did not have tatoos over their left eye. There are way too many murderers being released because of sloppy police work archaic old English laws.
True the statement should worth something along with the evidence that was found and let’s all hope that this witness indeed went back home safely and is not laying dead somewhere in Belize and God forbids that this dirty cop will continue in this position.
Moses
Don’t blame the Enlgish for the old laws that we are using. Blame Belize! We are an independent country, with our own judicial system, independent of England. The UK has moved on by leaps and bounds to amend, update and remove “archaic” laws. In fact, MOST modern countries have done the same [especially the old European colonial powers]. The fact is that the Belizean government is lazy and incompetent. Blame Belize! Blame ourselves for letting this continue to happen to our beautiful country!.
Blame Haiti!!!!