A forty-six-year-old father of Belize City will stand trial in the June session of the Supreme Court for incest of his thirteen-year-old daughter. He is accused of the sexual abuse of the minor in December 2017. When the P.I. kicked off before Senior Magistrate Aretha Ford, the father told the magistrate that he was under […]
An inmate who is a prison trustee, who is serving an eleven-year sentence for manslaughter, has been charged with the sexual assault of a security officer. Thirty-two-year-old David Rosalez appeared before Senior Magistrate Aretha Ford and picked up the sexual assault charge of a twenty-eight-year-old security officer which occurred back in 2018 at the Hattieville […]
Alaine Garcia, a mechanic of Hattieville, went missing and was believed to be dead but his body was never found. In May of 2018, a Hattieville resident Albert Emmanuel Jones Senior was charged for his murder after police claimed he confessed. Today, eleven months after the arrest, a PI before Senior Magistrate Aretha Ford ended […]
After two weeks in trial, the case against undertaker Sanjay Pilgrim, accused of the stabbing murder of his friend, Carrington Bodden, concluded before Justice Colin Williams. Bodden was killed in June 2015 on Freetown Road, Belize City. In the trial by judge without jury, Pilgrim was acquitted. Justice Williams rejected all three confessions which were […]
There is a major upset for the government in respect of the I.C.J. referendum that was scheduled for next week Wednesday. In a packed courtroom, a ruling was handed down this afternoon by Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin prohibiting the government from proceeding with the April tenth referendum as scheduled. The C.J. found that the injunction […]
Last Wednesday, during the prime minister’s press conference where he unveiled a revised legal opinion by former I.C.J. President Stephen Schwebel, attorney Lisa Shoman added her two cents to a question posed by a fellow media colleague. That question had to do with a possible outcome in today’s injunction hearing. Not only was the former […]
The monkey wrench that has been thrown into government’s I.C.J. timetable has undoubtedly upset its plans to proceed with a referendum next Wednesday. In fact, while it did not anticipate the surprising outcome, the Barrow administration has been forced to revisit the drawing board and re-strategize a legal approach. Late this afternoon, Prime Minister Barrow […]
PM Barrow has outlined a three-pronged approach to tackling the latest obstacle in government’s path to the I.C.J. referendum. That impromptu plan of action includes an application for a reworking of the order that the Chief Justice has made. Government also seeks leave for the referendum to proceed on Wednesday, but the results of which […]
The Court of Appeal is also an immediate first option in the wake of the Chief Justice’s milestone decision; that application being signed before C.J. Benjamin could properly exit his chamber. But is time still on government’s side, considering the slow pace at which the judicial system works and the tight deadline ahead? PM Barrow […]
Government’s high-speed train to the I.C.J. referendum has collided into an unforeseen blockade and there is no telling what impact, if any, that sudden crash will have on the momentum of the national vote. It’s a question that we posed to PM Barrow earlier, and despite not being able to answer directly, he is of […]
Twenty-one-year-old James Emmanuel Gibson was today arraigned in the courtroom of Senior Magistrate Tricia Pitts-Anderson for the weekend stabbing murder of his cousin, Malcolm Emmanuel. The customer care representative was remanded to central prison and must reappear in court on June third, 2019. According to the information, Malcolm Leslie found out that he was the […]
With the April tenth referendum inching closer to the date, the Chief Justice today heard an application for an interim injunction brought by the People’s United Party. This afternoon the courtroom CJ Kenneth Benjamin was packed to capacity as members of the House of Representatives including Opposition leader, John Briceño. The Opposition is challenging the […]
Courtenay also argued that the Special Agreement, read on a whole, is an attempt by the executive to empower the International Court of Justice to amend the country’s constitution as it relates to the territory, therefore, exercising legislature abilities in violation of the “separation of powers.” Shoman, however, argues that Courtenay’s IFs preempts the outcome […]
The attorneys for the P.U.P. did not give comments after the hearing; instead opting for after the decision to be delivered on Wednesday by the Chief Justice. In his arguments to the court, Courtenay also submitted that there is the question of irreparable harm. He contends that his clients’ rights as members of the executive […]
We’ve been following regional news; you would know that the government of Guyana was thrown into turmoil last December when a vote of no-confidence was passed in parliament. That motion has been challenged in the various courts and this morning before the Caribbean Court of Justice, a teleconference session was held between attorneys for the […]
A week ago, Guyana’s Court of Appeal ruled two-to-one that thirty-four votes were needed for the no-confidence motion to succeed. Before then, at the end of January, the government resorted to the High Court where Acting Chief Justice Roxane George ruled that the motion was legitimate and that regional and general elections should be held […]
Three Belize City men: Elwin Pollard, Aaron Flowers and Kendalle Green, were acquitted of gun and ammunition charges on Monday. The acquittal came after Prosecutor Inspector Macedonio Sanchez closed his case before Magistrate, Aretha Ford. The trio, along with now deceased Clive Smith, owner of a taxi, was found with a firearm and five live […]
An off duty cop was assaulted in Belize City around three o’clock on Saturday morning. The entertainment strip was buzzing with activity as Police Constable Mark Martinez was driving his private vehicle. As he drove pass Marina Towers, he honked his horn when another vehicle blocked his path on Princess Margaret Drive. That action triggered […]
The high profile trial for William “Danny” Mason and company has been adjourned because he needs new legal representation after attorneys Herbert Panton and Rachel Montejo stepped away from the case. When the trial started last week, attorney Dickie Bradley also withdrew representation. Several persons have been called to the witness stand including Lucas’ relatives, […]
Former City Administrator Candice Miller appeared before Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin this afternoon for mediation with Belize City Mayor Bernard Wagner. Miller was suspended from her post as the most senior manager at the Belize City Council a year ago, when a new administration took over at City Hall in March 2018. Her suspension followed […]
Three Belize City men known on the streets as Ants, Billy and Fabby today learnt their fate in the murder of Joseph Myers. Myers was gunned down on the compound of the Living Hope School on Maskall Street, Belize City in June 2012. The trio: Andy Forbes, Robert Vasquez and Clinton Tyrone Harris were sentenced […]
A taxi man picked up a man and his girlfriend to take them to their destination, but instead of paying him, the man pulled out a gun, tried to rob the cabbie and ended up shooting him twice. This morning, Marcos Garcia was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment, but because he pleaded guilty early […]
We take a break from the local news for two major developments in the region. Today, Guyana’s Court of Appeal ruled that a no-confidence motion against the government of David Granger was not valid because it was passed with thirty-three votes. That vote took place in December 2018 after Charandass Persaud switched his allegiance, setting […]
The trial of accused murderer William ‘Danny’ Mason and his alleged accomplices took a strange twist this morning when the courtroom of Justice Antoinette Moore was unexpectedly cleared. The media, as well as others in attendance, was asked to leave the session and shortly thereafter, lead counsel Herbert Panton, who has been representing Mason and […]
An application for a claim to be brought against Commissioner of Police Chester Williams was presented before Justice Shona Griffith this afternoon in Belize City. Corporal Eldon Arzu, the embattled president of the Police Association, is filing a lawsuit against ComPol Williams who has signed a statutory instrument limiting the term of office for the […]
