Last night, we showed you the 9 Belize City residents charged for the brutal home invasion of Lebanese Diplomat Sarkis Abou-Nehra's estate outside of Burrell Boom. 6 of these men are believed to be connected to the Police Street and Ghost Town Gangs.
Tyrone Meighan of Banak Street is among those charged, and his family is accusing police of tying him to this crime out of malice. They say that the investigators have rushed to charge him with rape without taking a DNA specimen, which could exonerate him.
His older brother, Ellis Meighan Jr., who is reputed to be one of the Ghost Town Gang leaders, was temporarily caught up with this crime as well. He was one of persons picked up in a police sweep, and officers from Eastern Division Rural accused him of threatening public safety. Police say that uttered threats of his intent to target and kill Chinese businessmen as soon as he was released. Frightening stuff, and so, Senior Superintendent Edward Broaster told the press yesterday that he was going to be criminally charged.
Surprisingly, the Meighan family called us during our newscast last night to inform us that Ellis Meighan Jr. and his younger brother Shaquille had been released from police custody without any criminal charges. This morning, Ellis, who usually avoids press encounters, made a very unusual request to grant us an interview. He accused Broaster and other officers of Eastern Division Rural of trying to use him as a pawn to stir up gang violence in Belize City. Here's how he explained that rational to us:
Ellis Meighan Jr. Claims Police Brutality
"GSU came and search my entire house and they have Kendis Flowers and all of us the same crowd that they met here whom they say was involved in some crime on the road. Although they met us here, they still took us and put us under investigation at Crooked Tree. When they left from here, they told my mother to meet them at Queen Street Police Station. When they took off in the truck, it was straight on the road they took. They stop with us at Ladyville and they met Arthur Saldivar there and Saldivar ask them what were they doing to us. They told Saldivar that they will take us back to Belize City. They took us in a back street in Ladyville and they disappear with and took us straight to Crooked Tree. At that time nobody knew where we were. So Mr. Broaster made a phone call to the station and told them to handcuff us in the cell. At the end of the day we don't steal from people, we don't rob people. We stay at our yard. Everybody knows we are not out in the streets hanging out. Nobody doesn't meet us on the street. We hang out at our yard. If we do hang out, it is here that we hang out."
"Now, Mr. Broaster is trying to put a heat on us that we don't need. Because now people out there will try to put hit on our head to try to kill us for something that we didn't do. We are not involved in that. If my brother and we and certain guys are friends - that doesn't means that we are involve in a crime that other men did. They are accused people wrongfully. They didn't take a DNA test on my brother and send my brother to jail for rape. My brother have 4 kids. We are young men out here. We don't need to rape anybody. Mr. Broaster just put an extra heat on our shoulder that we didn't need. Because we are in Belize City, Mr. Williams, Mark Flowers, Ms. Phillips and everyone are out here. We are not shooting or killing anyone. Nobody on the street haven't been gunned down for the longest in our zone. Everybody around here is peace and love."
"They didn't put my brother on an ID parade or take a DNA test on my brother. They took DNA tests on the other 5 men that got charged. That is outright chance. Now, whosoever house they went into. We don't even know. They would put a hundred thousand or fifty thousand for us to die. That is not right. Mr. Broaster put a hit on our heads that we didn't need."
Daniel Ortiz
"Were you in the company of your brother on Thursday night, to be able to vouch for him that he wasn't involved in this crime?"
Ellis Meighan Jr. Claims Police Brutality
"I was with my brother at my house. GSU searched the 3 of us; me, Kendis Flowers and my brother in my hall in my house. The main thing that is happening in the city right now, it's a competition within certain high ranking officers. But I won't further that because I am small man in this. It's a competition. When we are trying to change our life and out here to bring peace in our neighborhood back, they are trying to put us back. He say that I threaten to kill the Chinese. From I come from the station, any Chinese got shot? Any shot fired? We are alright. He want I to come to the city to do a ball of crime, make it look like I am giving trouble in Mr. Williams area. No man. In Ladyville you abstract us, we don't have any dealings with the city. We don't have anything to do anyone. God is not sleeping. Mr. Broaster is not doing the job the correct way."
Meighan also expressed gratitude to the police officer who was on duty at the Crooked Tree Station. He says that he and his brother were left in detention without any food, and it was one of the officers who showed kindness and allowed them to get something to eat while they were being held in custody.
We contacted Senior Superintendent Broaster for a comment in response to Meighan's accusations. He dismissed them as baseless and farfetched, and he told us that he did not see it fit to dignify Meighan's claims with any kind of merit, such as a response.
He did clarify to us that the reason that Ellis Meighan Jr. wasn't charged with causing public terror was because the officer who reported the incident appears to have mixed up Ellis with his brother Tyrone. Broaster told us that officer couldn't say with absolute certainty who actually uttered the threat, and so Ellis Meighan was allowed to go home.
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