In the early quarter of 2015, it shook the country when Dr. Marco Tulio Mendez, the former Area Representative for Orange Walk East, become the first parliamentarian in memory to be charged with child sexual abuse.
His accusers were 2 teenaged girls, who reported that the inappropriate contact started some years ago before the age of consent. In February 2015, he ended up being charged with a number of offenses, including aggravated assault of an indecent nature. For a year and 8 months, he had been quietly fighting this battle, attending all his court adjournments until yesterday, when all charges were withdrawn against him.
His accusers have told the court that they do not wish to proceed with prosecution against him. While it isn't a "not guilty" acquittal, which would be a full vindication, Dr. Tulio Mendez's legal troubles are over. He granted an interview to our colleagues at CTV 3 News today to discuss the favorable end to the entire ordeal. Here are his comments:
Dr. Marco Tulio Mendez, Charges Dropped
"Of course I am very glad that this is over. It has been a very difficult phase of my life. I really want to thank everybody who was there supporting me. I want to thank my family especially that was around and all of those friends and supporters that gave me that help. Definitely it was a very difficult phase of my life and thank God I had the strength to continue and move on. The effect was more person - the shock that one gets. Of course my family also did get a blunt of everything. But I am assuming that the other factors will be coming and improving as people know me."
Mendez did not want to take any questions from the reporter about the case. He stuck rigidly to his thank you message.
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