Supreme Court Judge dies in traffic accident

Last night News Five reported that Supreme Court Judge John Rivero was involved in an accident on the Western Highway. Today we learned that he did not survive the crash. While police are still investigating the cause of the accident and exactly how it happened, information at this time is that John Rivero and his driver Police Constable Jacinto Roches were heading towards Belmopan in a government vehicle around 4:30 p.m. At mile 34 they approached a curve, but collided with a private vehicle traveling in the opposite direction. It was driven by Winston Aspinal, a B.T.L. employee who was traveling with his wife Marilyn. Relatives of Justice Rivero say they were told Aspinal was attempting to overtake a dump truck on the curve and hit the judge’s vehicle. Aspinal has declined to comment. Police say they have not yet determined who was at fault, but that the nature of the impact suggests that at least one vehicle had crossed over the center line. John Rivero suffered severe head injuries and died while being transferred by helicopter to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Marilyn Aspinal is in a serious but stable condition at the Belmopan Hospital. Winston Aspinal suffered minor injuries and was treated and released.

Justice Rivero, began his career in the public service in 1967 when he joined the Police Department. In 1975 he became a labor inspector, a post he held for ten years. His interest in law led him to the Magistracy in 1986 and to study law at the University of the West Indies. He qualified as an attorney from the Norman Manley Law School in 1991. Since then he served as Crown Counsel in the Department of Public Prosecutions, Senior Magistrate, Senior Crown Counsel in the Attorney General’s Ministry and Registrar of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal as well as legal counsel at the Social Investment Fund in Belmopan. In February of 1998 he was appointed to act as Supreme Court Judge and was confirmed in August of the same year. The Attorney General’s Ministry today characterized Justice Rivero as a man who possessed a “proper judicial temperament and a sound sense of judgement and fair play whose untimely demise will leave a void that will be difficult to fill.” He was 51.