Two freed of drug charges and plan to sue police and GOB
Tasha herrera
It was a sensational case when Tasha Herrera
Alwyn gonzalez
and Alwyn Gonzalez were charged for drug trafficking that is over two kilos of suspected cocaine. Well, the tone was different this morning in court when the charges were withdrawn by Senior Magistrate Sharon Frazer after the court prosecutor, Sergeant Carol Tucker, said that the police department did not want to proceed against the two defendants. Why? Test results showed that the alleged substance for which the two were charged was neither cocaine nor heroin. With that admission, Magistrate Frazer told the accused they were free to go. It all stemmed from an incident on Wednesday May nineteenth, when cops made a bust at Herrera’s King’s Park house. She said officers searched her home and found nothing, but apparently a simultaneous search occurred in her yard which she did not witness. In that second search the cops found a bag with a substance for which she and Alwyn Gonzalez were jointly charged. The incident was very upsetting for Herrera and she says it’s not over yet. She intends to sue the police department for slandering her name, wrongful imprisonment, and the emotional pain she suffered a week after giving a C-Section birth. News Five spoke to her Attorney Richard ‘Dickie’ Bradley about the pending lawsuit.
Richard ‘Dickie’ Bradley, Attorney for Tasha Herrera
Richard "dickie" bradley
“There were other police officers downstairs in the yard and in an adjoining yard and they came up because Ms Herrera had only recently given birth and had done so through a cesarean and the police came up and said dis dah weh we find eena di yard. They then left with the two bags of stuff that they claim they found and then around two o’clock on the Thursday morning, came and detained Ms. Herrera and her young children, including the very recently born. She was protesting of course and they said well we wah call social and mek dehn tek weh yoh pickney so she asked to please take her to her grandmother so somebody could look after the newborn. In any event, she was detained and charged and she was kept in a chair at the police station at Queen Street for like mussy two days di siddong pan wah plastic chair. The other person who the police are really after, Mr. Gonzalez, in fact went to the police station and said that whatever you would have found in that yard cannot be any drugs. That is sheer nonsense and stupidity and so on and so forth. In any event, on the twenty-first day of May what was alleged to have been found was sent for testing at the National Forensic Laboratory and turned out not to be cocaine for which the young lady and Mr. Gonzalez were charged and not to be heroine; no kind of drugs. In fact, as we said already it was not even baking powder so yoh can’t use it. It was not flour, yoh can’t mek Johnny Cake. It’s a serious matter because Miss Herrera’s name was all over the news, her photo, her name is in the newspaper. The world has changed; everybody abroad, her friends, her relatives think that somehow or the other Miss Herrera is involved in drugs. She is charged with Drug Trafficking of two point four kilograms of cocaine.”
Marion Ali
“Who will she be suing, the officers involved…”
Richard Bradley
“She will sue the Government of Belize because the law is when you take legal action against any agent or any official. She will sue the Government of Belize, she will sue the Commissioner of Police and the individual officers who were told from day one, who knew that the certificate came back from the twenty-fifth of May and they leave that woman to stress. It’s so unfair man.”
Bradley said that he would give notice to the police department today about the suit. The man who was charged along with Herrera, Alwyn Gonzalez, is not free tonight as he is still remanded for other charges. Gonzalez is facing four counts of drug trafficking and one count of ammunition charges for another incident in which another woman, Tiffara Bradley is also a co-defendant. Bradley and Gonzalez will return to court on July twenty-third.
Thats what you call stupidity, lack of training, ignorance and unprofessional on the Police Dept. if that is what really happened. Cops should be able to determine if a substance is really drugs, even high school science students can do that with certain chemicals. there should be certain testers on site of a drug bust to not have this waste of time and embarassment. Lack of training and staying in the 19th century era. However maybe real drugs was found and some corrupt cop switched it for some money and even a share of money from a possible law suit victory, just putting everything out there. All in anutshell the department deserves to be sued because of their untrained and unprofessional system.
if da no soh, dah neily soh.
Doubt she will get anything, but this is what needs to be done, in my opinion. All the false arrests, corruption, etc. When people start paying, they also start paying attention to what is happening in their organization.
this unprofessional acts by the plice dep. has become something of a big concern not national but an embarrasment international. imagine when the world reads on the internet about our wannabe cops can’t differenciate cocaine with other substance that looks alike. I bet the dogs they use for narcotis bust might be more trained than their partner cops. this is really a shame.
The police need to be TRAINED in proper procedure. Did they have a search warrant???? and…. WHY pick her up at 2:00am???? Something ain’t right, but the law suit should fix that…. hopefully.
here goes dickie .. bradley again!!!! messed up this case!!!!
Stupid police they should have tasted that ??? cocaine, from they would have known wether is was cocaine, flour or some other shit!!!!
schtupid police officers, use your common sense!!!
Come on folks.
Do not be so stupid.
You know it was drugs.
Someone got paid big money and the drugs dissapeared on its way from the police station and was replaced by a non drug by the time it got to the forensic lab.
Now some persons have money to spend on hookers.
Others have free drugs to sell.
and yet others are not in jail free to deal drugs another day.
That is life in Belize.
Look at that ……
You can see he is a drug dealer.
Well somone will probably shot him soon in Belize City anyway.
I am a law abiding person who wishes every dam drug dealer and user be locked up for life but I also do understand how the law should work and that the police should behave professionally. So drugs or not; the police needs to be better trained to behave more professional and afford everyone due process. They also need to learn better how to collect evidence. Even if it was a bag of drugs where is the evdence that the police found it in their yard.
I am also sure that somewhere in the law there is something about compassion especially for a woman who just gave birth. Even if she was the worst drug dealer, where the heck she could run after a few days of a C-Section and a baby.
Excellent Dickie keep it up. I’ve been there and to have to deal with malicious persecution, defamation of character is nothing nice. They people have to know when and where to get off, when a person’s name is messed up, it is for life and when he or she is seen by someone at that is the first thing that registers on that persons mind. This is a warning of example that people have a heart mind and have feelings……….. stop the nonsense and stop fooling around with people’s name, reputation and character after all as humans, that is all we have and it is very very important. Go deh strong Dickie, more power to you and it will also continue to help you as a super credible lawyer so that people stop their stupidness!
how rude KKK
So what was in the package? And why would they have a parcel of white powder in their possession anyway?
It wasn’t flour, baking powder, cocaine, so what was it?
Chalk dust?
Baby Powdah?
That’s ODD.
KKK says:
June 30, 2010 at 11:35 am
Look at that ……
You can see he is a drug dealer.
Well somone will probably shot him soon in Belize City anyway.
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Wow. The stupidity is strong with that one. You can tell by looking at him that he’s a drug dealer?
I think i’ve menitoned this before. The Police Department needs to do the same as the Education Department who now requires that anyone who will teach our children pass a minimum standard test. The Tourism industry is also making sure that anyone involved in tourism take courses so we have educated tourist oriented people BUT ANYONE WITH LITTLE TO NO EDUCATION gets in the police force. If we were to pull up the education status of the entire current Police Department we would be SHOCKED. There are so many officer with little to no education, with no courses taken to better thier public relations with the citizens of Belize. I think all current and future police officers should have a minimum HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION to be a foot patrol officer and if you aspire higher position your education should be higher, you should not get a high position within the force cause you have been in the department x amount of years. This is not an immediate solution but WE NEED TO START FROM THE GROUND UP….
The police department need to do better. When someone reputation has been damage,it is hard to regain it back. There are alot of killing on the street everyday in Belize City that is the one they should work on. Instead, of hall and pull a mother who is giving birth. The police department need to start have well train people to their job.
What the Hell!!!!!!!! So what were these individuals doing with any powder anyway? So it seems that they were taking the cops for a bunch of Fools. Well if that was what they thought then they got what they deserve. I think that they are only focusing on one side of the story. What we need is the truth about the story on both side. And for Dickie he just wanna make money. Thats all. What these couple should do is to walk straight and stop be drug dealers. Do the right thing and be an example for the future of Belize.
I neva de de so me no know, but sohnting smell fishy yah!!! Dah no flour nor baking powder, cocaine nor heroin. So dah what? White mall? A judjer is a sinner but I’d bet anything that the real thing got swapped. Any ten year old could have identified whether or not it was drugs originally found in that yard. Just one more case of police CORRUPTION!!!!