Tonight, a Belize City mother of 7 is serving a 15 day prison sentence for fighting with another woman. 40 year old Moreira, who works at a fisheries cooperative, pleaded guilty to insulting words to Georgia Curry and harm with a piece of rock upon Shasta Flowers. That usually results in a fine - but today Chief Magistrate, Anne Marie Smith sent her to jail for 15 days, saying, quote,
"You must learn a lesson that you cannot take the law into your own hands."
The prison term came as a shock to the mother who left her children at home because she was expecting to be fined. She never thought that she wouldn't get a chance to go back home after taking a guilty plea.
This evening, her co workers came to 7News to plead her case:
Sharon Brakeman, Co-worker
"I want to know why they charge my friend and didn't charge her, because the police took her in front of a table and solved the situation. But that young lady go at the neighborhood and mess with nearly everyone. Sometime even me, but I don't pay her any mind. We are really unsatisfied because my friend got charged. She have 7 children to tend to and she is back behind bars. It's really unfair. She went behind bars and don't know if her children will eat or anything."
In court, after Moreira pleaded guilty to both offenses, she told the court that yes she did stone the woman because, quote, "All of them rushed at me."
Moreira has already sought legal assistance from an attorney and is appealing the Chief Magistrate's decision to send her to jail.
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