The Senate Special Select Committee resumed hearings in public today into the Auditor General’s report, calling three witnesses. One of the witnesses called today was Barton Middleton, the elusive Orange Walk businessman who previously caught a severe case of amnesia over his alleged role in facilitating visas for Chinese nationals, following a purported surgery for […]
Retired Immigration Officer Therese Chavarria has seen it all in thirty years at the Department, dating back to 1986. She took her leave last year after being transferred to Punta Gorda following assignments in the Passport Section and the head office in Belmopan, which was where she was at the height of the period documented […]
Chavarria spoke to the issue of shortcuts in the Department to benefit a chosen few, accomplished through bribery. In one instance, a prospective applicant for a passport, accompanied by a woman well-known to the Department, flunked his interview after his particulars were taken. He was not able to identify where he was born or even […]
As to how the passport was caused to be printed despite Chavarria’s investigations, it turns out that former Cabinet Minister Carlos Perdomo was the one pushing for it. He apparently appealed directly to Director Meighan who later belatedly informed Chavarria of the decision. As for the five hundred dollar bribe to look the other way, […]
Back to the senate inquiry…the final witness called was officer Omar Phillips, who worked the front desk and received the Won Hong Kim application for a passport in 2013. Phillips came face to face with then-Minister of State Elvin Penner when he presented the application, but he said he does not recall any conversation with […]
Chairman of the Committee, Aldo Salazar, addressed reporters after the hearing concluded this afternoon. He pointed out that other aspects of Barton Middleton’s situation – the brain tumour surgery; the alleged criminal case for Immigration offences and other matters – were not within the Committee’s purview except as it relates to any interaction with the […]
A woman alleged that she was held hostage, beaten up badly then raped by an attacker who left her locked up in a house. She resorted to a machete, but her attacker used it on her and she was left naked and bleeding when two men rescued her. But today, after two days of trial, […]
Twenty-two-year-old Santiago Garcia was chopped to death during a vicious machete attack in Trio Village on Saturday night. The laborer was along with two others who were also seriously injured during the brawl. Tonight, a trio from the southern community, including a sixteen-year-old minor, remains in police custody after being arrested and charged for the […]
After a hiatus of almost a month due to Easter holidays, the Senate Special Select Committee on Immigration’s public hearings return on Wednesday, with the last witness before the break, Barton Middleton, scheduled to continue his testimony. Immigration officers Therese Chavarria and Omar Phillips are also to be called to testify. The hearings have not […]
Two Ladyville residents find themselves in trouble with the law for an I-phone-six cell phone valued at one thousand two hundred dollars which ended up in their possession. Sonia Bainton and Edward McKay have both been charged for the incident. Bainton appeared on Monday before Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser for handling stolen goods in respect […]
After five nights in lockdown at the Queen Street Police Station, two alleged fake cops were finally arraigned. The duo was caught in front of Public’s Supermarket dressed in the police uniforms on April nineteenth, 2017. Dorian Blair, who is no stranger to the law, along with Barrington Slusher today appeared before Chief Magistrate Anne […]
Earlier this month, we broke the news of an internal statement within the General Sales Tax Department where Officer in Charge of the Punta Gorda office, Elmer Reyes, alleged that there was influence in the result of the auditor’s evaluation and subsequent report. Reyes openly questioned whether any law exists that allows for the management […]
Fifty-seven-year-old cab driver Ernesto Robinson is recovering from injuries received during a brazen carjacking on Tuesday night in Belize City. His attacker, twenty-two-year-old Shawn Rodriguez, a resident of San Ignacio, is behind bars tonight serving a seven-year sentence. Rodriguez, a first time offender, appeared before Senior Magistrate Sharon Frazer today, where he was arraigned on […]
A San Pedro resident met his untimely death allegedly at the hands of a chef under what appeared to have been a love triangle on La Isla Bonita. The fatal stabbing occurred on September eighth, 2016 when Elton Duran Polonio lost his life. Police charged Linden Kelly with Polonia’s murder. This morning, Kelly appeared before […]
Paul Jex Junior is the last person to see his case go to preliminary inquiry in the home invasion that occurred back on December sixth, 2015 at the house of businessman, Sarkis Bou Nehra in Burrell Boom. Jex Junior, along with several other Belize City men, namely: Brandon Baptist, Tyrone Meighan as well as John […]
Convicted fake cop, Aaron Wilson has been given a stern warning by Justice Adolph Lucas for mouthing off in the media last Tuesday, after being found guilty on two counts of impersonating a public officer. The saga of the make-believe lawman concluded shortly after midday when he was ordered to pay one thousand, seven hundred […]
Wilson was fined a total of four thousand dollars for both counts, but the penalty was reduced by two hundred and fifty dollars each due of the length of time during which the matter languished in the judicial process. Christelle Wilson, Attorney for Aaron Wilson “He discounted the fine because, as I mentioned, the […]
A San Pedro resident accused of a shooting incident that sent a minor to the hospital was arraigned this morning at the Belize City Magistrate’s Court before the Chief Magistrate. Thirty-year-old Leroy Goff was charged for dangerous harm, use of deadly means of harm with a deadly instrument upon Delson Paguada and one count of […]
A second Seawell sibling was set free today after an extradition request fell apart. Gary Seawell was released last November, and this morning after spending over a decade in prison, Mark Seawell was set free by Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin. The process to get him off was long and arduous, but after walking up the […]
Ladyville resident, thirty-one-year-old Noel Leal Junior, who was found with three hundred grams of cannabis, was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith on a single charge of possession of three hundred grams of cannabis. The bust was made on April fourth, 2017 on Faber’s Road, Belize City by police officers of the Special Branch […]
A street figure, Jason Joseph, who has had his own share of run-ins with the law walked free today from a charge of the attempted murder of a Belize City man he was accused of critically wounding in a shooting six years old. Even though the victim, Jeffery Flowers, was left as a paraplegic, he […]
Two cops were arraigned today at the San Pedro Magistrate court. The two were captured on video manhandling a woman and then firing indiscriminately on Barrier Reef Drive where a crowd had gathered after four o’clock on Saturday morning. Five persons were injured in the mayhem. The wild shooting by the cops has sparked outrage […]
He wanted to be a real police officer – he even sat the examination. But in 2010, special constable Aaron Wilson found himself on the wrong side of the law, accused of impersonating a police officer. He was found with various items made up from the Police Department and stories flowed thereafter about his various […]
At trial, Henderson effectively denied knowing or assisting Wilson in any way, but Wilson says he worked exclusively under Henderson’s command and was allowed to wear the brown Police Number One uniform, which was switched out after his case exploded into the public eye. Wilson also charges that he was paid ‘under the table’ to […]
It all came crashing down in July of 2010, when Wilson, who had been working at a night club in Belize City as security, was accused of molesting a woman and stealing her cell phone – charges for which he was found guilty in Magistrate’s Court. But he says the woman in question, while he […]
