Accused rapists acquitted as prosecution crumbles

It was big news two years ago: the alleged gang rape of a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl in the St. Martin’s area of Belize City. Today, the six men accused of that crime are free as the prosecution admitted that the testimony of its witnesses and signed statements were not consistent. Deon Ferguson, Joseph Myers, Joseph Logan, Deon King, Francis Petillo, and Eugene Rosado were all acquitted when Justice Adolph Lucas instructed the nine-member jury to find all six defendants not guilty. The allegations arose out of an incident on June eleventh, 2003, in which the girl claimed she was met by a young man known as “Weedy” who took her to a nearby house, where over the course of the morning and afternoon she was raped by eight different men. Of those original eight, one had the charges withdrawn, while another, Mark Saragosa, was fatally shot a few months later. Prosecutor for the Crown was Marjorie Moyston.