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Cop Sent To Jail For Attempt To Corrupt Another
posted (September 30, 2014)
Police Corporal Darius Martinez is spending the first night of an 18-month sentence after he was convicted before the Chief Magistrate of attempting to corrupt a public officer. The allegation was that he tried to bribe a member of the Gang Suppression Unit to give him information about the investigation into the infamous John McAfee case.

The main witness in the trial against Martinez was Woman Police Constable Stacey Smith who testified that on May 11, 2012, Martinez contacted her by cell phone and asked her if she wanted to make some money. She says that Martinez didn't go into detail about what she would have to do to earn that money until they had a second conversation, which she recorded. That recording was presented before the court and admitted into evidence. In that conversation, Martinez wanted WPC Smith to tell him what the GSU found at McAfee's residence outside of Orange Walk Town in May 2012. He was also interested to know about a diary which was supposedly confiscated.

As we told you, Martinez's attorney, Anthony Sylvestre, made a no-case submission, which was rejected by the Chief Magistrate, who ruled that the prosecution had established a prima facie case against him. Martinez then offered an explanation from the dock that he wasn't trying to corrupt WPC Stacey. He says that he was only trying to ask her to provide security for John McAfee.

Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith announced her ruling today that it was clear that Martinez asked the officer to compromise her integrity. With that, she sentenced him to served 1 year and 6 months in jail.

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