D.P.P. on her husband, the Head of the GSU
Marco Vidal
Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl-Lynn Vidal is married to a man who has led a somewhat controversial and high-powered life in the Belize Police Department. Marco Vidal plays a dual role as Commander of the Gang Suppression Unit and head of the Special Branch Department. It’s inevitable that on occasion their cases do interact, and also inevitably, this has resulted in less than pleasant speculation. The D.P.P. maintains that their mandates are completely different and any perception is just that…perception without any basis in fact.
FOR VIDEO CLICK HERE.
Cheryl-Lynn Vidal, Director of Public Prosecutions
Cheryl-Lynn Vidal
“First of all anyone who knows either of us would know that it is impossible for either of us to be moved in a direction that we do not want to go. That’s number one. Number two – the mandate of the Police Department, and he is a member of the Police Department, is to prevent, detect crime and to apprehend offenders. My mandate is to prosecute…it’s totally separate. And I have been prosecuting, as I said a short time ago, for the better part of fourteen years. This is what I do. There is so much talk of a conflict of interest. How can there be a conflict of interest if I am sent a file and we look at the file, we deem that there is sufficient evidence to go forward, and we prosecute the case. That’s our mandate…that is what we do. There can be no conflict of interest. We do not approach matters from the GSU with any more or any less passion or prosecute them with any more or any less passion. They are Police Officers and they send their work to us in the normal course as with any set of officers from the Police Department.”
The D.P.P. also spoke on the Peck case as well as the role of her office in the prosecution of cases.
It is completely absord for Mrs. Vidal to state there is no conflict of interest regardig her husband being head of GSU and she being DPP. The conflict is inherent. Both positions fall under the department of justice (not sure if that is the actual name) and there should be protocols in place to prevent such conflicts of interest. A high ranking position such as DPP should require a person to have a combination of many years experience at a high level and education. The two has to be combined in order to provide a DPP with well rounded knowledge and more importantly, insight.
In the end it is not proper grammar or a spelling bee that is the gist of this story. It is the denial of any conflict of interest. Any judicial branch would agree that the appearance of a conflict of interest exists and as such the honorable wife should recluse herself from prosecuting any case that involves her husband.
As I understand it, the special branch is equivalent to the CIA, and as we all know shady things happen that the ordinary citizen is not aware of, for example the murders of gang leaders, the transport of major drugs through Belize and political coverups directed by the ruling party. I could go on and on but do not want to risk my sources’ lives. But anyway, Mrs Vidal every Belizean know the axiom when 2 heads are on the same pillow there is no separation of shared thoughts. Unless your husband does not tell you all the Special Branch secrets.
When fish come from river bottom and tell you alligata gat bellyache, believe am.