Happy American only has to pay $5,000 fine for damaging reef
Kirk Leslie Daughtry
It is akin to a slap on the wrist for American national, forty-six year old Kirk Leslie Daughtry who will only pay what can be considered as a pittance of just over five thousand dollars for damages to the priceless reef. Late this evening, Prosecutor of Port of Belize, Mario Vernon, told the court that the Port was withdrawing all three charges against Daughtry. According to Vernon, the Port of Belize Commissioner and Daughtry reached an amicable resolution after numerous meetings. When we spoke with Vernon to find out why the charges were suddenly withdrawn and why the settlement was so low, he told us it was an agreement reached by all parties involved after all factors were looked at. On August eleventh of this year, Daughtry was charged with three charges: Failure to report a maritime incident, Refusing to authorize an officer to go on his boat and Failure to take a licensed pilot. The allegations brought against him by the Port Authority were that in June of this year Daughtry had damaged the reef near Drown Caye. The most serious offense of them was failure to report a maritime incident, which carried a fine of nothing less than fifteen thousand dollars. After paying his fine, Daughtry is expected to sail from Belize on his yacht, the Odyssey next Monday, September first to Guatemala, where he plans to spend four months before heading to the Pacific. Daughtry had additional been charged with Violating immigration offenses and Failing to comply with visitor’s permit, to which he had pleaded guilty and was fined a thousand dollars, He paid that fine immediately. Daughtry’s attorney was Kevin Arthurs.
Who did he pay off? From the grin on his face, he got over. When are we going to stop being suckers? Can someone explained to the idiot who touched his toes for this jerk that we need the income,
This is another case that is sure to upset the Belizeans at the core.
The F……. could have gotten away with mass murder if he wanted to and the authority would have given him a giant hand in is escape of justice.
They should have taken away everything he owned, sell them and use the money to help preserve the reef.
The happy tourist thinks that even evolution has a sense of humour.
this guy is totally shady… he lies about how long he plans to stay in Belize (only 1 day!), then gets his boat washed up on the reef, fails to report that incident (why would he not want help?), refuses to let an officer board his vessel (where was our coast guard?). He obviously had something to hide.
Shame on the Port Authority for cutting a deal with this guy.
this just goes to show that belize is nothing but a playground for all the tourist. bet you that if it was a belizean not only would he be charged millions of $$$$ but would have gone to jail. This is the kind of things that make every belizean question the goverment. is belize for sale just for a couple of $$$$$???? what is my country coming to? are we to be the playground for every tourist that does not care for the environment???? belizeans it is time to wake up and tell our goverment atht we will not stand by and watch people come to belize to just damage what is priceless to us!!!!
This sounds to me like somebody got their paws buttered under the table. Fool di talk but dah noh fool di listen…. Oh!!!
you f&*^$# idiot smiling now, how you played our stupid justice system, really you disrespected our nation like …, hope that, not a turist but a terrorist hurt U.S and see if you gonna smile again. and to Arthurs you’re a sell out, this guy paid you more to fight for him than the amount paid for the fine charged. what a shame on you, seems you guys are gettin reach from these scums and forgetting the pride as a Belizean should have. And for the port same goes to you all administrators that came to an amicable agreement what the hell is that?
A picture is worth a thousand words! This guy is laughing all the way to the bank, “SUCKERS!” This is a sad commentary on our justice system, all around! It just does not dawn on the responsible parties that the reef is irreplaceable, in our lifetime! That which took thousands of years and some fool or….(you can substitute here) decided it was better to look the other way! Previously, there was this boat, belonging to a millionaire that ran aground of the reef and what happened? Nothing! The Captain skipped town! Really? After all that damage and he was able to abscond and there are no further discussions on the matter!
I think we should call on the government to get an independent investigator to have a look at these incidents. See who are the people involved. If there is an overlap in the people dealing with both incidents. Who were the initial people involved and who were involved at the end. That should be a telling story!
ridiculous…
ya louisville ky it was your pms gov that took this bribe or maybe it was the pm himself who has his head so far up abamas a….. that let him go this pm letting the amreicans take over belize lets see over 300 gang members taken back from the us in the past 2yrs for little or no money at all this pm letting the us fly unsafe helicopters in belize for nothing pm letting the us get out of only giving belize 2 million dollars from the merida iniatiative when over a hundred million was allocated to central america and its the us fault all these gang members are in belize and all belizeans getting killed we the get sell out to america but your pm say he is not oliver twist he is oliver barrow and he will not beg or gravel for the lives of his fellow belizeans because he does not want to disturb america well i say lets get the money we need from venezuela, from china, from iran , from russia or anyother country willing to help out belize and they will donate for nothing for nothing in return.
DON’T HATE THE PLAYER………….. Hate the GAME!!!!!
THIS MAN IS CIA
yes, but does the GOB spend any money on repairing the reef? i dont think so, just another way to rip-off people
Ridiculous, it would be interesting to find out who were bribed.
Folks many of you may not agree with what I’m going to say here because you have bit into a big BULL about independent sovereign nation. You all need to read more for your own edification and knowledge (to know) .When the vast majority of individuals my age went to school we were taught BRIEF SKETCH OF BRITISH HONDURAS. Not the real history of this piece of land call Belize. There was a teacher by the name of Myvett who had a grocery shop on New Road after he retired from teaching that had the history book of Belize that he was not allow to teach, but he loan it to me in the fifties and I got to know differently. After that I meet and became good friend of a historian out of the Caribbean, by the name of C. Boyd James who also exposed me to another history book of Belize, that was a little different than the one I read that was loan to me by Myvett, but both historians pointed almost identical facts about the manner whereby this came to be a British possession, by might.
Folks before you all get puff up about the result of this guy’s damage to the coral reef, Note that this so call independent that we thinks we have is only at the mercy of the Powers that be. Not knowing who this guy really is its best to leave well alone. This could be a person that is so well connected, that all it take is one phone call and its over whether our government like it or not. We are not in a so-call strong Sovereign position. Because of the constant treat of Gautemala we have to walk in a very narrow lane when it come to America. Case in point, when the PUP won the election from UDP and they went to Cuba the embarrasment for that act was the snatching of some BDF’s and Police by Guatemalan military. It was a shot across the bow to the Musa government to say, know your place. But our government dear not tell us the truth about that situation.
This country exist as a so call independent nation at the mercy of the bigger international boys, if one day they decide that we should not be a country of Belize anymore, all they have to do is look the other way for a few hours and its all over unlest we can get Mexico to move in our defense, but properly planned by the Guats- they can make our lives a living hell for a while if it would be possible to get them out after a while. It all depends on good will and how our Political leaders play the diplomatic game that will cause us to remain so-call Sovereign.
Rod, be more enlighten about the game of internationl relation and diplomacy before you jump to such conclusions.
straight bribery…..the ports commissioner…..has he no dignity…..what a shame for him…and what a shame on the whole darn government for allowing these scum to be in such a positions….
Get the facts. The guy ran aground yes but on grass and mud, not a reef. Any seafarer who knows the Drowned Caye area knows that. He was punished for that still and the other offences he commited.likewise.
Kiss an foreigners ..thats what most politicians and officials do !
spyglass You da man Here in Corozal the town board made it real pretty they put garbage cans polopas little Maya statues Repaired broken down and smashed dump trucks Replaced the lights smashed alongside the bay made the town look REAL pretty especially at night . Welcome to Belize!!!! Violence Vandals Corozal Bay is a protected area Lately in the big Polopa which someone tried to burn down a couple of months ago, someone else maybe the same fire bugs now have a noisy get together like it shakes my house sometimes until 3 AM the police come and close the bars after midnight and don’t even ask if the users of the polopa if they Have the required permit!!! The concrete seats at the small ball field had the lower sections or rows jumped on until it crumbled, one of the concrete benches on the other side of the field was destroyed, a few garbage cans have had their legs broken, a great number of Bay lights have been damaged some are MIA, THE saddest of all though is the destruction of the Coconut Trees so some people can have privacy in the BIG polopa on saturday nights. The Music man is very cleaver he has a different group of ASSailants to work the destroy the Coconut trees MISSION so MR U SICK can have privacy in what used to b a bear slab of concrete.
People come to Miami Beach for breeze and shade Hurricane Dean took out about 1/2 of 36 coconut trees Now some if you don’t like it GO back to your country Belizean has a Kill the Coconut SWAT team on a Mission to slowly but surly destroy the balance of these trees!!!
NOW shouldn’t MR Music be held accountable for chopping in a PROTECTED or not????? This is the typical get a Minor to Commit the crime AND the BIG man squeeky Clean!!!
It is so sad to watch BUT it is YOUR country