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FILE: October 28, 2014
Sherwin Baizer - Allege Police Brutality
"On Friday the 24th, I went to the market to buy vegetables on my bike and like the men (police) were coming on the lane the same time I am going to a stall to buy. They came out and search me and they didn't find anything, so the sergeant said "go through" but this next police officer named "AldalBerto Baton," he said no, he will take me in better and he grab me on my shirt and started to drag me and so I told him that I didn't like his son to drag about this place. So while they were trying to handcuff me, I drop the $7 that I came to buy with at the market, and I was trying to pick that up, I forgot about them still trying to hold me. So they manage to handcuff me and they put me in the car and this police named Andy Rodriguez, he handcuff me from behind and he started to choke me with his left hand and put my head between the two police officers and started to pound me with his right hand, so the other two police men started to pound me also - 3 of them. When they finish pounding me I had injuries to my head, swelling in the eyes, nose and the neck and I was bleeding through my nose. When they finish do their dirty deeds now, they took me to "Boots" police station and the officer "AldalBerto Baton" got a hose and wash off the blood from my nose and my eye. Then when they took me to the hospital to take an x-ray, they told the doctor that I have allergies and that's why my eyes look like that. Now when I finished with the x-ray, they didn't give me the x-ray nor my medication. They just send me back in the "pisshouse." I was locked up from Friday because I slept at Raccoon Street Police Station the night and then bring me back at "Boots" police station the next morning and they took me to Queen Street Police Station after that. But they were saying that I assaulted one of them. The whole of Belize could see how my eyes look and that I was assaulted by 3 of them."

Police had to wait three days for the swelling to go down before he was arraigned. In the interim their behavior was very shady. First, even after they tried to convince the doctor that he had allergies that caused the swelling on his face, his medical legal form, never made it into the case file. In fact, it just disappeared. During the trial, when Chief Magistrate, Anne Marie Smith asked arresting officer PC Andy Rodriguez what happened to Baezar's medico-legal form, all PC Rodriguez could say is. "I can't recall." Worse than that, when Baezar's mother testified she said that when she visited the KHMH and saw her son, she confronted PC Adalberto Batum and asked him why he beat up her son like that and he told her, "I dah ih pa." She also testified that after she asked the police for her son's X-ray result, they refused to give her a copy. She also showed the court the picture of Baezar's face swollen beyond recognition.

Chief Magistrate Smith threw out all charges and said, quote, "This is the one of the most blatant cases of police brutality I have ever come across. " End quote. She added that she will be making a report against the officers to their boss after what unfolded inside her court room yesterday. And to make it worse, during her the delivery of her judgment, one of the officers were seen giggle over the matter. Baezar and his mother are getting an attorney to sue the police officers who beat up her son.