7 News Belize

Pickwoad’s Win Interim Victory
posted (January 28, 2014)
A week ago, 7News told you about the Supreme Court case that aspiring politician Beverly Castillo was caught up in.

She was accused of orchestrating a land grab on Chetumal Street just before she left office of CEO of the Ministry of Natural Resources. Bernadette Pickwoad, a Belizean American, claims that Castillo used her influence to have her lease cancelled and then then transferred to Castillo's son and mother, Mervin Castillo and Maud Williams.

Beverly Castillo continues to fervently deny the allegation, and the Commissioner of Lands has spoken to 7News explaining that the lease was lawfully revoked because Pickwoad violated the terms.

Audrey Matura-Shepherd, attorney for Bernadette Pickwoad, got an injunction to stop Castillo, her son, and her mother from making any further developments on the land to try to strengthen their claim to it.

Last week Monday, Vanessa Retreage, the attorney for the Castillo family, made an application to have the injunction discharged so that they could move forward, while Matura-Shepherd applied for it to continue. Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin delivered his decision in chambers, today, and after the hearing, Matura-Shepherd, explained the outcome to the media:

Audrey Matura-Shepherd, attorney for Bernadette Pickwoad
"We appeared before the chief justice to hear his ruling on whether or not the injunction will remain and he did rule that the injunction will remain. He doesn't want it to remain for too long because he believes the matter needs to be resolve, so we hope to have a quick trial. The essence of the injunction is that there will be the third and the fourth defendant cannot go on the property and do anything on it, so the persons who presently were building cannot continue building until after the trial and the government cannot go ahead and published the notice in the gazette which makes a lease final - that basically it and that's what we wanted."

Daniel Ortiz
"Does that give credence or does that bring strong credibility to your clients claim that the court has agreed to increase this injunction length?"

Audrey Matura-Shepherd, attorney for Bernadette Pickwoad
"I think the chief justice is looking at an issue of fairness as any judge should and it doesn't mean that we know how the ruling will go, it just means that - think about it - If I am asking you to give me back my land, why would I allow someone else to do everything else with the land so that by the time my land is returned to me it is really just an academic exercise because now someone else has an interest. The way the law looks at things - they try to balance things. We are trying to maintain the status quo."

Beverly Castillo contacted 7News via telephone today, and she told us that the court granted Matura-Shepherd permission to withdraw her from the injunction. She claimed that this is a win for her since she says that she was improperly joined to it in the first place. We spoke with Matura-Shepherd and she told us that the decision to do this is not final, and she would have to consult her clients on that.

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