Woman claims abuse from lover and the cops

Vivian Martinez

Tonight a twenty-six year old woman in Belize City is claiming abuse at the hands of her cousin, her cousin’s boyfriend and the Belize Police Department. Vivian Martinez says that since Friday her life has been a nightmare and she has nowhere to turn for help. According to Martinez, she lives at a rented house at number ninety New Road with her cousin, but that relationship turned sour and she asked her cousin to leave. That was on Friday, but her cousin allegedly refused and brought her boyfriend, a Police officer into the picture. Now they have both refused to leave, she claims, and she has been forced to move out of the house with her children because her life has been threatened. It’s a sordid mess, made worse because she says that since Friday she has been seeking the assistance of the Police Department, but instead of assistance she was threatened with arrest by an officer at the Eastern Division. News Five spoke to an obviously distressed Martinez at the Raccoon Street Police Station today as she told us what happened when an officer in the Internal Affairs Department told her that she could remove her cousin’s property from out the house today. Here’s her side of the story.

Vivian Martinez, Says Police Abused Her

“I had two of my neighbors helping me. She came out of the room and then she threatened; she said, “[Bleep] you know you dead right?” That’s what she told me and she walked off. She went to look for him at the station and he came back running to the house and right away he attacked the two men that were in my house; dragged them down the stairs. He punched…right now one of them is at the hospital. I don’t even know his status; he punched him hard in the chest. These are not young men, they are elderly and he was having chest pain. He said his heart…he was having problem with his heart so they had to rush him to the hospital. After he attacked them, he came after me. He grabbed me on my left arm and then he dragged me out on the verandah. I managed to get away and then I went and I got a card and I was calling 911. When I called here, the lady told me that they can’t help me and I explained to her what Mister Rivero instructed me to do. She said that Mister Rivero said that that’s not true; that they can’t do that and she hang up the phone on me. Now I was right there in front by Kick-Down because this was on New Road and he was still attacking the men. He was going crazy and the police they just had him sit down on the chair and they knew that he was dangerous and he came after me. And when he came after me, he dragged me again. And it wasn’t until when he already held on to me is when they held him and pulled him away. So one of the police shove me and said Miss get the hell away from here. So I walked up the street. And when I walked up the street, the same man Mister Tillett was right there standing watching the entire thing and he came after me and told me that you need to go to station. This morning when I went to station, he was the one who threatened to arrest me. So when I told him I’m not going anywhere with you. He grabbed me by my hand and he said that if I have to manhandle you I will drag you through the street until you reach Queen Street. Look at my hands. He has my hands all dig up; he held me tight. And if it wasn’t for the people on the street, he wouldn’t let me go. And I told him that I am not going anywhere with you; you are not going to arrest me for anything because I didn’t do anything wrong. I haven’t slept in three days. I literally haven’t slept in three years.”

Duane Moody

“Are you in fear of your life now?”

Vivian Martinez

“Of course I am. I have been that’s why I didn’t go back to house; that’s why I wasn’t sleeping in my house. And I have been explaining all of this to those police officers and nobody wants to help me with anything. All they say is that they have to look into it, they have to investigate. What will it take for them to help me?”

As we said, that is Martinez’s side of the story. News Five spoke to Officer Rivero at the Raccoon Street Police Station this afternoon and he told us that they are investigating the matter and are taking it seriously, including Martinez’s claim that she was manhandled by an officer from Eastern Division. We visited the house this evening but were told that both women were at the Police Station but that Martinez’s cousin had decided to leave. We were also told off the record that contrary to Martinez’s claims her cousin has paid rent up to the end of June and that is why she refused to leave. We’ll have more on this story in Tuesday’s newscast.