Senator given three months suspended prison sentence

It’s a court of law frequented by many Belizeans but its cases rarely make it onto the evening news. No longer. A family court proceeding that was today resolved in magistrate’s court has ramifications for the law, politics, and the media. In the ruling U.D.P. Senator, newspaper editor and talk show host Audrey Matura Tillett was found guilty of contempt for willfully neglecting a visitation order made by the family court. The visitor in question, who was denied the right to see his five year old son, was none other than television commentator and radio talk show host G. Michael Reid. The friction between Matura, who edits the U.D.P. Guardian and hosts “Innerviews” on Channel Seven, and Reid who holds forth weekly on News Five and daily on FM 2000, dates back to shortly after the child’s birth in 1993. By July of 1996 Reid had been granted visitation rights to see the child he had fathered with Matura but the agreement that worked so well on paper did not function in the real world. Under the arrangement he was to see his son every other weekend and every Wednesday. During the trial, Reid’s attorney Lois Young Barrow argued Matura repeatedly violated the order and was thus in contempt. Matura and her attorney Dean Lindo countered that Reid had verbally abused her, her newly acquired husband and the court appointed go-between, frustrating her efforts to comply with the order. Magistrate Sharon Fraser apparently found Reid’s arguments more compelling and sentenced Matura to three months in prison. The sentence was suspended however, in the interest of the child. Matura was warned that she can still be punished if she does not comply with the original court order. The case wound up in Magistrate’s Court when Reid’s lawyer successfully argued that contempt of any court order is a criminal offense. Reid told News Five he regrets that the case had to go this far and that it should have been resolved in the family court long ago. He says while he feels vindicated and has the highest praise for his attorney, he cannot rest until the problems he feels exist at the Family Court are corrected. For her part Matura told News Five she still feels this was a problem for the family court and that people only know one side of the story. She says she has no problem with her son seeing his father, but is sorry that adults cannot agree. She says she will be back at the family court trying to work out a visitation agreement that works.