2 cops arrested for beating Cayo man
It has not been a good month for the Police Department. With seven murders in two weeks and more cops singled out for wrongdoing than valor, it’s difficult to see the results of improved training and reforms promised some time ago. And today the ugly side of law enforcement was exposed once again as two Cayo constables were charged in what appears to be a beating of a prisoner so brutal that tonight he lies hospitalised in critical condition. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods has the story from Belmopan.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Thirty-two year old Emil Pinelo says all he was trying to do was stop the police from harassing his friend, but instead it was Pinelo who would suffer at the hands of the authorities. Two police constables, identified as twenty six year old PC666 Clayton James Marin and twenty-two year old PC 903 Cyril Joseph Wade are accused of causing dangerous harm to Pinelo.
Emil Pinelo, Victim of Police Brutality
?I was trying to defend myself because he had me from the back and he was choking me and I couldn?t breathe.?
Pinelo says he was further badly beaten with a blunt objected and then kicked repeatedly in the stomach.
Emil Pinelo
?The only thing I remember is that he hit me with the club in my head and I fell to the ground and he started stamping me in my stomach like about twenty times.?
His brother, Jamie Carlos Pinelo says when he reached the police station, the police would not let him see Emil and refused him any medical attention.
Jamie Carlos Pinelo, Brother
?So, my brother came to the door where I could see him and he was wearing only a pants, no shoes, no shirt and he was holding on to his stomach. He was bleeding all over his head; he had blood coming from his mouth and his nose. He was complaining about abdominal plain and was complaining of abdominal pain. He was holding his belly and said, brother please carry me to the doctor; they f–me up real bad.?
Some forty-five minutes later, Pinelo was taken to the hospital where he was not only treated for a severe head wound, but he underwent an emergency operation where doctors removed twenty-five inches of their patient?s small intestine.
Police commissioner Carmen Zetina says he has been disturbed by what he has seen so far in the case file and reiterated his zero tolerance policy.
Carmen Zetina, Police Commissioner
?Yes I believe that sometimes police are aggressive depending on the given situation. But for police officers to abuse their powers to the extent of brutalising people as such, I?m highly against that.?
Marin and Wade were arrested and charged with Dangerous Harm. Today, the police constables appeared in San Ignacio magistrate?s court and each were granted bail in the amount of ten thousand dollars. Zetina says he did not agree with the court ruling and believes his men should have been remanded.
Carmen Zetina
?Today we add in the instruction that we forcibly object on the bail be granted to these police officers because I want to send that to the public that I mean business. I am not going to condole these sorts of irregularity or abuses. But yet they were offered bail, which tends to send a different signal today to the community. My thing is that they should have been remanded to know that the department is serious about it. That one our own is remanded because of abuses. But we?ll keep on fighting. My position continues to be that I will not tolerate police abuses or excesses for that matter.?
Zetina says he is now in the process of bringing disciplinary charges against P.C Wade and P.C Marin. At the same time other officers are being investigated and will be held accountable if it can be proven that they too played a role in the Pinelo case.
Emil Pinelo
?Well, I would just like something done about this because it?s not right. I mean I was just trying to help my friend and they turned on me. It?s not right.?
Although P.C Wade and P.C Marin have been interdicted from duty by law they will continue to receive half of their salaries until the situation is resolved. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.
The Police Department is currently investigating seven cases of police brutality, corruption, or disciplinary infractions that have occurred over the last two weeks.
