Ombudsman’s investigator arrested for extortion
This morning, thirty three year old Lionel Castillo, the investigator at the Ombudsman’s Office, appeared in Belize City Magistrates’ Court where he was arraigned on the charge of Extortion following a sting operation by police. Authorities say Castillo received an initial payment of five thousand dollars after he purportedly helped an inmate serving time at the Belize Central Prison received an early parole.
According to court reports the former prisoner, Kelvin Reneau, who had been incarcerated for Conspiracy to Murder, was sentenced in early two thousand to eighteen years in prison but last month was paroled.
In a police press release authorities state that it was prison officials who contacted them after they became aware of the interaction between Castillo and the inmate. Police say based on the information Friday they launched the special operation.
Court reports reveal that last Friday the sting occurred at Old Belize on the Western Highway where Castillo met Reneau and received from him, one thousand five hundred dollars. Police say it was when Castillo was leaving the location that they searched him and found in his possession the money, that had previously been marked by police.
Today, Ombudsman Paul Rodriguez would not discuss Castillo’s case but says that at the time of the alleged incident Castillo has not been working at the Ombudsman’s Office because he is on vacation leave until September. According to Rodriguez, since Castillo started working with him in 1999, he has not received any complaints of wrongdoing by Castillo concerning money matters. Furthermore, Rodriguez says he is not aware of any incident where Castillo while employed at his office received any payments for any case he may have investigated.
Paul Rodriguez, Ombudsman
“No, I am not concerned Jackie because the ultimate judge of anything that is done by the Ombudsman is the Ombudsman. No matter what investigations he does, those investigations are submitted to me and I am the one, the Ombudsman is the one who decides whether this should be done or
that should be done. So, I am not concerned that way at all. But I am concerned as you seem to be, about the good name of the office. I think that having been here—I am into my ninth year—I am convinced that this office serves a very, very useful purpose; that it is good especially for people who have little access to justice because they don’t have the finances, the resources to go to an attorney to get a remedy and redress in court. So I am very jealous of the good name of the Office of the Ombudsman and I do whatever I can to uphold the dignity and the integrity of this office, the honesty of this office.”
“As far as I know, an accusation has been made and our law, all our laws and our system of justice is based on the principle that a person accused is innocent until proven guilty. So Mr. Castillo has been accused. It is up to the police to go to the court and show the court that he has done wrong and until the court says you are guilty, he is innocent. That is the way justice works.”
Lionel Castillo was granted bail in the amount of two thousand dollars plus one surety of the same amount. Castillo is scheduled to reappear in court on September Eleventh. It is not clear whether Castillo had any influence on Reneau’s being granted parole.
