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But today, his trial was moved to the Belize City Magistrate's Court where more than 20 heavily armed officers of the Belize Special Assignment Group and Special Patrol Unit escorted him to court and restricted civilian and press movement in and around the court. Mendez's attorney, Arthur Saldivar, told the media today that the case was moved to the city because the sitting Magistrate believes that there may be a threat to her safety. He believes that this fear means his client cannot get a fair trial. Here's how he explained it:

Arthur Saldivar, Attorney for the Defense
"What has occurred is that by virtue of a conversation that was held between myself and the magistrate yesterday where she had called me - she had indicated that the police informed her that there was a threat to her safety in Corozal. As a result of that threat and her belief that her safety was in jeopardy she made the move to transfer the case to Belie City. Still to this moment we have not been given any indication as to what type of threat was levied and how it was communicated. In fact my understanding is that this was not a threat that was communicated to her but something along the level of a suspicion and we know how the police are with suspicion. Everybody is a suspect, so this was the condition under which this matter was moved to Belize City. The way our system of law works, the arbiter of justice and in this case the magistrate is both the judge of law and the judge of fact. She cannot be operating under any circumstance where fear or favor, affection or ill will forms an influence on a decision that is made. In this regard we already see that a decision was made out of fear and that decision was to move the case from Corozal to Belize, so the fear that she has spoken of has manifested itself already in a decision made to move the case. I that regard the likelihood of a fair trial or a decision that is levied without the taint of that imposition is unlikely and is not something that stands within the realm of the law to uphold. What is most tragic about the situation is that is for the Government of Belize to provide for the courts, so a magistrate exhibiting fear to the extent that she cannot conduct and discharge her function is an indictment on the Government of Belize in that it suggests that the Government lacks the ability to safeguard the process of the courts and the process of the law."

And that fear of a mistrial was not the only issue that attorneys Arthur Saldivar and Dickie Bradley raised today. The defence was supposed to begin presenting their case, but instead of that happening, Saldivar came back to court to make a submission that a matter be heard in the Supreme Court on whether or not the sitting Magistrate was able to dispense justice in a constitutional manner.

His contention was that the Magistrate was a contract officer, and as a result she didn't have security of tenure. And by extension, this Magistrate, in Saldivar's opinion, was not independent and impartial, thus his clients constitutional rights to a fair trial was being infringed upon. That submission caused a heated back and forth, but ultimately all parties agreed that this constitutional challenge must be made before the Supreme Court. So, at this point, the case is at a stand-still where the prosecution has already presented and closed its case - and the defence is trying to go to a higher court.

This constitutional challenge has not yet been scheduled at the Supreme Court.