Tour Guides Acquitted of Attempting to Bribe Top Cop Edward Broaster

On March twenty-second, 2014, Senior Superintendent of Police, Edward Broaster, accused two men who were visiting Caye Caulker of trying to bribe him so that no charges be levied against them.  The two are tour guides Argyle Jex and Lewis Cal, who were jointly charged, with the offense of Attempting to Corrupt a Police Officer. Jex was additionally charged with one count of Possession of a Controlled Drug.  This afternoon, the Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith acquitted both men of the charge after the prosecutor, Inspector Egbert Castillo failed to prove the charge against the men.  The Chief Magistrate also told Broaster that he is a senior police officer and if the men uttered words of bribery to him, he should have written it down.  With that said, both men were freed.  During the trial, both Broaster and the arresting officer Timothy Roches gave different versions of what happened that day. Broaster testified that on March twenty-second, 2014, he and other officers were conducting mobile patrol on the island when they came across the men. They were searched and Broaster claimed he heard PC Roches ask Jex if he has anything on him. After finding a small amount of weed, Broaster said he heard Cal tell Jex to give the police officers a little money and that Jex pulled out one hundred dollars from his wallet. But there was a conflicting version from Roches and when both Jex and Cal gave sworn testimony, their account was also different. They told the court that at no time were they trying to bribe the cops or officer Broaster. And before leaving the stand, Jex was able to demonstrate to the court that while in was in hand cuffs,  he was able to go into his pocket, retrieve his wallet and open it to count his money. And that is when he said, Roches grabbed his money and accused them of trying to bribe the police.