D.P.P. and police clash again; will Chester be arrested?
The long simmering conflict between the police and Director of Public Prosecutions has once again boiled over. Credible reports reaching News Five indicate that a Police Internal Affairs investigation of alleged brutality against a murder suspect in Dangriga has resulted in a memo from the Director of Public Prosecutions instructing the Police Department to arrest four of its own officers. While News Five has been unable to confirm all four names, one officer cited in the memo is Superintendent Chester Williams, head of the Eastern Division Crimes Investigation Branch. It is alleged by Jose Aleman, charged with murdering his father-in-law and brother-in-law in July in Dangriga, that he was beaten by the officers and forced to sign a confession to the homicides. Speaking to Williams today, he told News Five that media accounts of the memo were erroneous, but he declined to elaborate, referring us to Police Press Officer G. Michael Reid and Police Commissioner Gerald Westby. When Reid returned our calls this afternoon he informed us that the Commissioner did not wish to comment on the matter. Likewise D.P.P. Kirk Anderson told us that he had nothing to say about the reports, other than that the matter is under investigation.