Orange Walk Mayor charged in fatal traffic accident

Four days after he knocked down and killed two people, Orange Walk Town Mayor Ravei Gonzalez was arraigned in the Belize City Magistrates’ Court on two counts of Causing Death by Careless Conduct. Magistrate Dorothy Flowers did not take any pleas from Gonzalez because the matter will be tried in the Supreme Court following a preliminary inquiry. Gonzalez was offered bail of six thousand dollars and ordered to return to court on July twenty-eighth.

Inspector Calbert Flowers, O.C., Ladyville Police Station
“We’ve decided to charge Mr. Gonzalez with the charges of Causing Death by Careless Conduct due to the circumstances does not really allow us to charge him for manslaughter by negligence. The circumstances do not amount to a charge of manslaughter by negligence. The investigation reveals that it would have been very difficult to prove that Mister Gonzalez was negligent in any way in this traffic incident. As it goes for the urine specimen, the specimen is still at the lab and we are awaiting results. However, those results won’t be in until some time next week.”

Gonzalez was driving his van around six o’clock Sunday evening near mile thirty-five on the Northern Highway when he knocked down forty-seven year old Manuel Coto and two year old Martita Lopez, both of Rhaburn Ridge. The little girl’s mother, Marta Garcia told the media this week that Coto was walking Martita on a bicycle as they headed to a wake.