Teenager Charged with Drug, Bicycle Offenses

Kyle Latchman

He was caught by police with a bag of weed while riding a bicycle without a bell contrary to traffic and later Kyle Latchman managed to escape. He was soon recaptured and police have slapped the eighteen-year-old with charges of drug trafficking, escape from lawful custody, caused a bicycle to proceed up a one-way street and riding the bicycle without a bell.  Latchman appeared before Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser today and admitted that when police intercepted him on Albert Street, he placed the bag of weed on the rail at the Swing Bridge. But Latchman claims he was not riding contrary to the traffic. He pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, escape and to riding a bicycle without a bell, but not guilty to riding a bicycle contrary to traffic. Latchman was busted on Sunday on Regent Street by an officer who did not find anything on him, but when he searched the black plastic bag he had seen him place on the bridge railing, he found it to contain cannabis. When he was being processed, Latchman fled and ran into Water Lane and was captured two blocks away in the area of Duck Lane, Belize City.  But after understanding the seriousness in taking a guilty plea, he changed it to not guilty of drug trafficking. For the offense relating to the bell, he was fined twenty-five dollars and the other offenses are before the courts for which he was offered bail. Latchman was ordered to surrender his American passport and he told the court that his mother is in jail and that he came to Belize to find his father.