Dangriga cops interdicted on brutality allegation …

Two police officers are on interdiction tonight after a prisoner reported that he was handcuffed to a hospital bed and pistol whipped. Twenty-five year old Keith Cruz was formally charged with Aggravated Assault, Wounding and Harm in the Dangriga Magistrates’ Court this morning and is scheduled to return to court on June second. Investigations show that on Friday May sixteenth, thirty year old taxi driver Rhold Henry got into a confrontation with an off-duty Cruz and another man in Dangriga. The scuffle ended with Henry being stabbed in the leg. He was taken to the Southern Regional Hospital for treatment under police guard pending charges related to the fight. But around one-thirty on Saturday morning, Henry says Cruz entered his hospital room and viciously beat him with his service revolver in the presence of another officer, Sergeant Reymundo Reyes. Sergeant Reyes was today placed on interdiction and charged with the Offence of Neglect of Duty. That’s because while he is not accused of physically harming Henry, Reyes apparently made no attempt to stop Cruz from beating the prisoner. Henry’s attorney, Antoinette Moore, has called the incident “one of the most outrageous cases” of police brutality and human rights violations to take place in Belize. In addition to seeking criminal charges against Cruz, Moore says her client also intends to sue for compensation.