Brothers Underwood on Bail; Accuse Police of “Planting” Live Round
Alexander & Austin Underwood
Brothers Alexander Underwood, twenty-eight, and Austin, twenty-four, have made bail on a single charge of possession of prohibited ammunition, to wit, a single five-point-five-six round allegedly found on their property in Belize City on Monday. The elder Underwood is well-known as alleged leader of the Southside Gangsters but had been making recent attempts to reform his life. They were charged on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty, whereupon they were remanded to prison. But they each retained Richard “Dickie” Bradley to represent them as they sought bail today. According to their family, they can prove that surveillance cameras in their yard allegedly caught police officers in the act of “planting” the round late in the evening of Monday and then returning to arrest them on Tuesday. Police have already demanded the footage, but this afternoon Bradley, speaking to News Five, said police do not have that right.
Richard “Dickie” Bradley
Richard “Dickie” Bradley, Attorney for Underwood Brothers
“Earlier, while I was in court, the G.S.U. came to the precincts of the court and took a family member of the Underwoods – the common-law of Alex Underwood – and took her to the police station and from there she was taken to the Racoon Street Police Station where she was questioned, and it was demanded that she hand over some tape recording – a visual, a video – of police officers entering the said yard where the ammunition was found, of those officers entering sometime between twelve and one a.m. the same morning. They then returned sometime around eleven o’clock and then charged the two Underwoods for being in possession of a single round of ammunition, which was found in a blue plastic on the fence, which is clearly suspicious. But apart from the suspicion, it appears that there is video footage of the police being in the yard, and being in the back and being at that area of the fence when they came into that same yard earlier in the morning.”
Aaron Humes
“So as you said it is suspicious; the allegation, it would seem is that…”
Richard “Dickie” Bradley
“They planted it.”
Aaron Humes
“Exactly; so what happens to your client in that scenario?”
Richard “Dickie” Bradley
“In terms of that matter, when the date for the trial comes, I am sure that the Magistrate will be able to hear both sides and how you can only…I won’t go into what will happen when we go to trial. But the point is that the police are behaving inappropriately, to put it mildly, to take a citizen, to remove them from their lawful business, to detain them illegally, and then try to demand that they hand over their private property. You have a right – the Commissioner of Police has said it several times – anybody has a right to take out their camera and video the police when they are in operations. They are public officials, they are public officers; they are paid by members of the public. They are conducting themselves unprofessionally and illegally. The usual conditions apply, that they are to report to the police station and to report to the court on every adjourned date, and not to interfere with witnesses, and not to get in any trouble with the law while he is on bail, and that is a signed bail of five thousand dollars.”
The Underwood brothers are to return to court on January twenty-fourth, 2018.
