History was made in Belize today. For the first time ever an elected official was arrested and charged, arraigned and bailed for criminal offences. The news has been circulating all this week – so you already know it’s Mayor Moya who’s been charged. But how did it all go down? 7News has been following developments all day and we have the story with the usual level of granular detail.

Jules Vasquez Reporting,
Police set up a special detail for the arrest and processing of Mayor Zenaida Moya at the Queen Street Police Station. Led by her attorney Michael Peyrefitte – the vehicles pulled up at 9:25 am with the Mayor’s husband rushing to give the new mother some umbrella coverage from the light rain.

The Mayor stepped into the Queen Street Station with City Administrator Kiran Vanjani and her assistant Kiran Bhudrani – both of whom are jointly charged with her. Serious but not appearing overly concerned, she waved to the press. The City’s Financial Controller Dwain Davis waited at a distance with his omnipresent advisor Ryan Swift

Marion Ali, News 5
“Have you been informed of the charges?”

Dwain Davis,
“No.”

Davis moved off as his attorney Richard Dickie Bradley sauntered in and the two met upstairs. A small gaggle of onlookers gathered to take in the spectacle while there were at least two brave Moya supporters and also detractors like former whistle blowing city administrator Englebert Perrera.

Inside, Moya and the others were formally arrested, photographed, and fingerprinted downstairs at the Scenes of Crimes Unit. One hour and a half after they went in – her attorney Michael Peyrefitte readied to leave the police station. The Mayor along with Vanjani and Bhudrani left the police station not in her vehicle but in this black Police Prado. She arrived at the court’s rear entrance at 11:00. She looked confident and unperturbed – like it was a political nomination, not a criminal arraignment.

Treasury Lane was closed and police had a very high presence in the area as curious onlookers and crowded the sidewalk, some of them heckling, while the media crowded the entrance to the court. And who wouldn’t want to see the steely warrior respond after coming under attack from her own party? She didn’t disappoint.

Mayor Zenaida Moya, Charged with 24 Offences
“They have brought up procedural matters to say that okay this is what they are going to bring against us; procedural matters, administrative matters. Now if they are going to say that myself as (an) elected official, the Mayor of Belize City should be held accountable, I must know everything that is happening under my watch, then does that mean that when it comes to the matter of the treasury, will the Minister of Finance be charged? Will he be charged?

When it comes to the KHMH issue will the Minister of Health be charged? When it comes to the border management will the Minister responsible for border management be charged, the Minister of the Tourism? And the list will go on when it comes to Lands, all these things; all the Ministries, every single thing. Will the Minister be charged then because they are elected officials just like myself. They are no different from me.”

Jules Vasquez,
“Are they guilty of wrongdoing Mayor? In your opinion are those people guilty of wrongdoing?”

Mayor Zenaida Moya,
“I am not guilty of wrongdoing. I will speak about myself. I will speak about myself. Now as the Mayor of Belize City I have workers working under me and I expect that as administrators, as workers, they do their work. I am not over anyone of them telling them what to do. That is not my way of management, I let them work. I was a former public officer, I was a former head of department, I have never been over my workers watching them but at the end of the day I expect them to do their work. Now to bring these foolishness to say okay because I am the elected official, my portfolio is finance, then I am to be held responsible?”

Marion Ali, News 5
“You say it is political Mayor but it is your own party?”

Mayor Zenaida Moya,
“Exactly it is my own party and I know everybody knows that I do not have a cozy relationship with the Prime Minister, with the leader of the party. They know that fully well, this is not something new. This is something we all know from the convention. Zenaida is not somebody that is a puppet. We all know I am not a puppet. Everybody knows Zenaida is not a puppet and from the convention day there wanted to ensure that I was not the mayoral candidate for that party. But the people had their way, the people had their say, the people had their way. And I have been elected and I will ensure that I continuer serving the people of Belize City. No one person elected me. No executive of the party elected me. The 8,000 plus voters who went there to vote for us, they elected me and I will serve them.”

Jules Vasquez,
“Is the Prime Minister carrying out a vendetta against you?”

Mayor Zenaida Moya,
“I feel that somebody doesn’t have balls when they are going to come after me when I am on my bed delivering a child. That is how foolish it is. When I am delivering a child, they think I am…that weak that I wouldn’t have come up. Well you know what, I am a strong woman, everybody knows I am a strong woman, and they will see. This will play out and they will see that I have done nothing wrong but be a strong woman who would have anybody dictate to her and have her like a little girl. I am not nobody’s lee gial. I am nobody lee gial.”

Vaughn Gill, Vibes Radio
“Are you going to continue serving while the charges are in the court?”

Mayor Zenaida Moya,
“Yes of course I will.”

Jules Vasquez,
“Will you remain a UDP if you say the leader is out to get you?”

Mayor Zenaida Moya,
“I am a UDP. Nothing has changed. If the leader, that is one man, and he may have some of his minions who will try to discredit me and may not want me to be a part of the party but I don’t see that coming from the rank and file. His minions and him can have whatever is their opinion, that is their opinion.”

Marion Ali, News 5
“Your baby is 20 days old, how are you, how is your son?”

Mayor Zenaida Moya,
“I want to tell all my supporters that myself and my baby, we will make it through this. My family we will make it through this with grace of God, with the support of all my supporters, the people who believe in me, and I believe that justice will prevail and they will see that these are just trumped up malicious charges; very malicious.”

And while Moya left in a flurry of activity, her attorney Michael Peyrefitte coolly told the media he is confident:

Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney for Zenaida Moya
“22 counts of uttering charges were brought against the Mayor especially and there are two pending charges that we have to resolve at 2 o’clock as the section of the law quoted for those charges does not exist according to law. She is charged additionally to the uttering, she is charged for violations of section 23 (6) of the Belize City Council Act chapter 85 of the laws of Belize revised 2000. But in the revised 2000 chapter 85 Belize City Council Act there is no such section as 23 subsection 6. So the crown had asked for an adjournment to two o’clock this afternoon to clarify that.

Secondly there is the mention of the violations of the City Council regulations pursuant to the $50 amendment. We are contending that is not a valid charge as there is no official legislation or regulation which states that over $50 the City Council has to get approval from some Financial Controller. It is not an official regulation and so it is not an offense known to the law if you were to violate so to speak that amount of money.”

Jules Vasquez,
“But wasn’t it passed into law by the National Assembly at the end of January?”

Michael Peyrefitte,
“No Jules it was not passed into law. What was passed into law was an act which states that the Minister of Local Government can appoint a financial controller and the Minister of Local Government can then give directives as to regulations or parameters within which that financial controller can operate. There is no such thing in the regulation which says or mentions any $50. It is not present anywhere on anything that could be considered legislation.

On the face of the charge itself, what I have in front of me is a charge that does not exist in law and the next thing on another charge I have the particulars of a charge which also has restrictions which do not exist in law so that is my submission this morning, that will be my submission again this afternoon, and we will see what the Magistrate decides on that. If the Magistrate goes against us this afternoon all it means is that the charges will stand and evidence will have to be brought to support those charges.”

Jules Vasquez,
“Do the charges speak to $19,000 not accounted for in the month of April?”

Michael Peyrefitte,
“Well it speaks to some invoices of $50, $60, $70 - I don’t know if that adds up to $19,000 but I wasn’t computing it in my mind when they were reading it out but there are 22 charges each totalling an average of $50 to $70 so it is not close to $19,000.”

Jules Vasquez,
“If your client calls you during the lunch hour and says Mike what are my chances of getting off this scot-free what would you say?”

Michael Peyrefitte,
“I look at the evidence and going on the evidence and based on the charge I make my arguments. I make no guarantees because I make no decisions. Lawyers only give advice and make submissions. Decisions are made by Magistrates or a jury. I don’t make decisions so I can’t give those kinds of guarantees. But I can say that based on everything she has a good case.”

Importantly, Peyrefitte withdrew his objection this afternoon after the Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl-Lyn Branker Taitt went to court to demonstrate to him that the subsection 6 that he said isn’t in the law, is indeed right there in the most recent amendment to the Belize City Council Act which was made law on December 30, 2008. And if he didn’t know, the Mayor could have told him because on 24 January 2009, she signed off on the Statutory Instrument bringing the new regulation into law – again, that regulation states that all council payments exceeding $50 must be made by a co-signed cheque.

They went back to court this afternoon, and Peyrefitte explained the revision of his position.

Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney for Zenaida Moya
“We decided to save our arguments for when the matter comes up for trial or the preliminary inquiry. It concerns the City Council regulations and the certain section. There was an amendment to the Belize City Council Act Chapter 85 but what was brought this morning was a charge under the old act and I think that the legislation does provide for and when you see an Act it means an Act in its amended form as well. But once it is amended then I will have a different issue with the amendment. So I just didn’t want to make submissions and give away my strategy for when I make final submissions. So I withdrew that submission and will wait until when the matter becomes live to go before the Magistrate.”