7 News Belize

Senior Counsel Rodwell vs. Yearwood/Young Family
posted (October 28, 2013)
It's been some time since Attorney Rodwell Williams, the Prime Minister's law partner in the firm, Barrow and Williams, has made the news. Well tonight, he's back, and not in a good way; the esteemed Senior Counsel is at the center of an ugly dispute with the well-known Yearwood family, of which former police press officer Fitzroy Yearwood is a member.

The problem is that both sides claim to have title documents for a piece of land on Cemetery Lane. Things finally came to a head on Saturday afternoon, when the police and BDF went to the Yearwood family yard to install a structure to be placed on the parcel under dispute. 7News was out there as the confrontation unfolded, and Daniel Ortiz has the story.

Daniel Ortiz reporting
On Saturday, out in the rain, the police officers stood outside on the street in front of lot 404 on Cemetery Lane, guns at the ready, and they were supported by BDF officers. These heavily armed security forces were there to oversee the delivery of the yellow hut on a parcel of the Yearwood land. The Yearwood, just as determined as the police, stood their ground, getting soaked, as they voiced their protests that they didn't intend to allow the hut to be put on what they claim as their land.

The issue is that Rodwell Williams, the Prime Minister's Law Partner at the firm, Barrow and Williams, says that a part of the land is his.

Deon Joseph - Member, Yearwood Family
"The dispute is there are two seemingly legitimate documents, so this new document came to counteract with the old document."

Sharret Yearwood - Member, Yearwood Family
"What happen is from what I know we are supposedly related (Rodwell Williams) and the Young's. From way back we got permission to live on the property. If you look there right now there is nothing in front because all of them have moved from the yard. He is now getting somebody to put that structure on the property."

"Apparently the police are saying that he has gone into the police station to make a report. I am not stupid and I don't think anybody out here is stupid; if he has made a report it is now in the hands of the law, so let it take its course. Why do we have this charade out here with police pointing guns at people. There is no need for this. Absolutely no need for this. If this has to reach the courts, let's go to the courts. Where is Rodwell Williams right now, where is he. If he claims that he owns this property, where is he? Everybody else who lives here is out here right now."

Keith Yearwood - Member, Yearwood Family
"This is family land. Rodwell Williams claims to be family, but had never done anything to this land."

Sharret Yearwood - Member, Yearwood Family
"Is it because Rodwell Williams is somebody up in society? Is it because he has the backing? No man."

Gary Yearwood - Member, Yearwood Family
"Putting the house there, he is encouraging the owners of that house that they have rights. It is not like that."

Geovanni Brackett
"Because that would mean that you are admitting that you are giving them consent."

The whole situation wasn't sitting sit well with the Yearwood family demanded a court order, or some legal document which gave the police authority to enforce the delivery of this structure.

They showed us their documents which they say gives them full ownership of the land. Those include an original will and testament of the late Richard Codlin Young, who died in May 1904.

In that will, it lays out the measurements of the land as 64 feet in the north, 130 feet in the east, 80 feet in the south, and 90 feet in the west. Those were supposed to be the exact measurements of the land from Richard Young, which was passed down to his family. The Yearwood family also disclosed a copy of a survey done in 1997 which outlines the Richard Young land which they inherited from their ancestor. It wasn't exactly to the dimensions set out in the will, but according to them, this survey is the exact measurements of the land that they now live on.

So, that brings us back to Saturday, where they say that Rodwell Williams has absolutely NO claim to the land, and that he shouldn't be trying to strong-arm them for a parcel of it.

But the police would have no discussion with them about it, according them, they were only present on orders and do their jobs and ensure that the hut is delivered.

There were quite a few more confrontations like that, and when cooler heads started to prevail, the officers tried to reason with members of the Yearwood family, so that they can amicably resolve the issue.

Some 15 minutes later, they did convince Mr. Yearwood to move his vehicle, so that the workmen hired by Rodwell Williams could place the hut on the section of the land that Williams is claiming. They weren't the least bit happy about it, but they didn't want to disturb the peace any further and give the police reason to arrest them.

So, while they continue to resist Rodwell Williams' claim to the land, the unanswered question remains: how then did he set his sights on the land in the first place?

Elaine Yearwood - Member, Yearwood Family
"My grandfather had given them authority to live there until they could do better. He says after they could do better they could move, but it looks like they can't do better yet because this same piece of trash there is what he wants. I don't know why."

But Williams says that it's more than that; he says that he has title for the parcel of land that the Yearwoods are resisting him on. And while he refused to entertain us in an interview, he did provide us with a copy of his papers. Dated October 24, 2007, the official document from the Lands Department says that he owns parcel number 1141.

Seen here on the map, 1141 corresponds to the very same piece where the hut now sits, and he also told us that he has been keeping up-to-date on his payments to the Belize City Council on land taxes relation to this parcel.

In an interview last year, Williams noted this property as the location where he grew up, and spent most of his childhood.

Rodwell Williams
"I was born in Belize City on Cemetery Lane across from Wesley College, Yarborough Road. My family was poor struggling parents like any other in my neighborhood at least. I had become essentially what folks called a workaholic and everything for me was working hard, producing, earning - always with a sense of trying to help others."

And those comments are key for 2 reasons. The Yearwood family believes that he has used his influence at a successful attorney to trample what they see as their rights to a piece of land that they own. Secondly - which is directly counter to the Yearwood family's position - Williams says that he is simply exercising his ownership of his land, and he is helping "someone who needs to use it, to locate there". The Yearwood family says that they will take the matter to court; Williams also says that if they continue to resist, then he will take them to court. So, by all indications, this dispute is far from over.

Today, the police went back to Yearwood yard to ask them to go to the police department along with Rodwell Williams to discuss the two land documents. They refused, saying they will only do so along with their attorney. There is also another document which is important to this ongoing issue, the Yearwood family's land tax receipts from the Belize City Council.

Those receipts show that the Yearwood's have been paying taxes on parcel number 1141, and not the entire parcel which they claim the Rodwell Williams piece also covers. When we asked them about that discrepancy which could legitimize Rodwell William's ownership, they told us that they've been battling the Belize City Council to fix that "error" but, it has not been done.

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