7 News Belize

U.S. Woman Charged For Traffic Offence In Belize, Back home in Ohio
posted (January 28, 2011)
We first told you about Suzan Benzle Boutz on January 10th. She's the 60 year old American Woman who knocked down a man on a motorcyle on the southern highway and was charged with driving with due care and attention" and "negligent grievous harm."

As is standard in such cases involving foreign nationals, the US citizen's passport was taken away because she is a flight risk.

Well, she's proven that…how do we know? Because two days after appearing in court and getting her passport back, she's flown away! We saw this report from her home state of Ohio today:..

And while Benzle Boutz happily declares her fugitive status and freely flouts the Belizean justice system, it's not that's simple.

The procedure is that when the case comes up next month, they will most likely try her case ex-parte when she does not appear in court, and if convicted, a warrant will be issued for her arrest. She said she won't be here and in that case the government would liase with the US government to have her located and sent back to Belize.

The accident happened in December when Benzle Boutz crashed into thirty nine year old Rony Robert Cruz. Cruz who was was transported to the hospital and Boutz was detained by the police. According to Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mike Segura, a doctor classified Cruz's injuries as maim.

Segura went on to say that, police investigations reveal that Boutz was at fault because she failed to give way to traffic.

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