Cop first convicted of Robbery; now of Grievous Harm

In Magistrates’ Court, a cop who was convicted in July of this year for a string of robberies in Orange Walk, was convicted for other charges relating to a traffic accident on Monday. Magistrate Aretha Ford, found Selwyn Griffith guilty of Causing Hindrance to the Free Flow of Traffic and Grievous Harm upon fifty-three year old Horace McLauren, a resident of Freetown Road. Magistrate Ford imposed a non-custodial sentence of three hundred dollars. On March tenth, 2009, just after noon, McLauren was riding a beach cruiser bicycle on Mahogany Street when a white pick-up truck stopped in front of him. He collided into the vehicle’s door when it was opened by Griffith. McLauren was injured and had to be hospitalized. In the previous incident in July, three men including Griffith, Calbert Budd Jr., and the proprietor of Palm Island, Dominique Strack, were charged in the Orange Walk Magistrates’ Court with Robbery. The three men pleaded guilty and got one year imprisonment. The trio was dressed in B.D.F. and police uniforms when they robbed a Chinese store in the Trial Farm area of cash and calling cards. They then hit two other Chinese stores before heading to Belize City. Police, however, intercepted them in a red Mitsubishi Montero.