Ex-Police Officer Remanded for Weed

Ronald Sutherland

An ex-police officer, who was out on parole, is back behind bars tonight. Ronald Ragan Sutherland was convicted of wounding his ex-girlfriend back in 2014 and sentenced to two years, but while out on parole, he committed another offense which has landed him in jail again. This time, Sutherland is accused of trafficking weed after police surveillance led to the discovery of a bag of weed at his girlfriend’s home.   Sutherland appeared this afternoon before Senior Magistrate, Sharon Fraser and was read a single charge of possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply to another person or persons for the purpose of drug trafficking. On Tuesday, police visited Sutherland at a Belize City house. After handing over a bag of weed, he reportedly told the police that his girlfriend did not know of it and that in fact, the drugs were left there by his younger brother. Today, he told the court that he would take the rap for the weed, but he will only take a guilty plea for possession and not drug trafficking.  But after considering that Sutherland will no doubt be taken back before a board since it appears he has violated the conditions of parole, the Senior Magistrate did not accept his guilty plea. She explained to Sutherland that if his parole is not revoked, then he can go return before the court and apply for bail. With that he was remanded to the Belize Central Prison until February sixteenth, 2016.