35 year-old Marlon Hernandez, a former Lieutenant of the Coast Guard, got some good news from the Supreme Court today when Justice Michelle Arana ruled that the Security Services Commission unlawfully dismissed him from the Belize Coast Guard.
Back in 2008, Hernandez was criminally charged in relation to forgery but in November 2009, he was acquitted of all the charges against him.
Very soon after that, the Security Services Commission brought him up on disciplinary charges in relation to the very same incident that the Judiciary acquitted him of, and they ultimately dismissed him from the Coast Guard.
He decided to appeal the decision to the Belize Advisory Council, but they dismissed the appeal and upheld his dismissal from the department.
Well, with the help of his attorney, Dean Lindo, they took the matter to the Supreme Court and they filed an application for Judicial Review of the decision of the Security Services Commission.
That case was heard to completion earlier this year, and today, Justice Arana handed down her decision in which she ruled that Hernandez was unlawfully dismissed from the Coast Guard, and she gave him a back-salary award for just under $60,000.
Today, he spoke to us, and he explained that this judgment somewhat relieves the sting of the SSC's railroading of his career as a member of the security forces.
Here's what he had to say about the entire situation:
Marlon Hernandez
"Today Justice Arana handed down a 28 page judgment in my favor. I was a former lieutenant of the Belize Coast Guard commission officer. In 2008 I was dismissed from the Belize Coast Guard. I subsequently had appeal to the Belize Advisory Council and later to the Security Services Commission. Both organizations had upheld my dismissal. In 2010 through my attorney Mr. Dean Lindo we apply for judicial review to the Supreme Court. The case was heard in March of 2012, I was basically charge criminally. The charges were dismissed by the magistrate court. The Security Service Commission brought back the charges against me and those same charges I was dismiss from the service."
"The judgment basically entailed that my dismissal was unlawful from the security services which my department the Belize Coast Guard and I was therefore awarded judgment in my favor. I was a former lieutenant in the Belize Defence Force, in 2005 I was transferred to the Belize Coast Guard. I have subsequently undergone an officers training at the US Coast Guard Academy. In fact I was one of the first officers to complete that training for the Belize Coast Guard."
Daniel Ortiz
"It's safe to say that you are a highly trained officer for the Belize Coast Guard?"
Marlon Hernandez
"That is correct, I have all this qualification in maritime and I am not employed in any maritime field due to the fact that I was basically railroaded by members of the Belize Coast Guard who basically had brought allegations against me."
Daniel Ortiz
"Today's judgment exonerates your position that you are innocent and that your career was destroyed?"
Marlon Hernandez
"Definitely, I am somewhat not happy because I will not get back my job but to some extent my name has been cleared. The allegations that they had brought against me the Supreme Court had basically exonerated me of those allegations and I will see where life goes from here."
Hernandez told us finally that his attorney has already filed a claim of defamation in the Supreme Court against the Commandant of the Belize Coast Guard, for the origin of the criminal charges, which started this downward spiral.
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