7 News Belize

Hilmar Off The Hook
posted (May 8, 2017)
It's been a little over 2 months since we last reported on the lawsuit that the Government of Belize has filed against Andre Vega and Sharon Pitts. These are the two defendants who ended up with a total of 800 thousand dollars from the public purse for land compensations that shouldn't have happened.

The Government is trying to get that money returned, and both Vega and Pitts are being sued in two separate cases before two different judges.

And, it looks like the case against Andre Vega may have weakened somewhat because his co-defendant, Hilmar Alamilla, has won the lawsuit even before it was fully heard. That's the outcome of a case management conference chaired by Justice Courtney Abel. The judge granted an application from his attorney for Alamilla to be removed as a defendant in the lawsuit.

You'll remember him as the temporary paper owner of the private property that the Government shouldn't have sold near the Haulover Bridge. He's the middleman who originally bought the land from Government in January 2013. The then Lands Minister, Gaspar Vega, approved the purchase of this prime piece of prime real estate for $2,500 dollars. That piece of land is a 1.057-acre parcel between the Caribbean Sea and the Phillip Goldson Highway, which already had an owner. So, it was not available for the Government to sell. The Land Department's technicians indicated this to their bosses, and there are written warnings of this on the land documents, but those instructions were ignored.

A few months later, Hilmar Alamilla sold the land to Andre Vega for $15,000. Over a year and a half later, in September 2015 - when the original owner showed up - the Government was forced to compensate the son of the former Lands Minister with almost half a million dollars.

So, following the paper trail, Alamilla involvement in the land's paper ownership, appears to be a very important dot that the Government has to connect so that they can prove the case against Vega. But, the Attorney General's ministry will have to go another route because Alamilla's attorney has slammed the door shut on that line of inquiry.

Today, his attorney explained to us how he managed that:

Steve Perrera, Attorney for Hilmar Alamilla
"We had filed an application for the second defendant to be struck out as a defendant in the matter and it was successful and it was ordered that the second defendant be removed from the claim."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"On what grounds did you all asked the judge to remove the case against Mr. Alamilla?"

Steve Perrera, Attorney for Hilmar Alamilla
"After reviewing the claim, we felt that there was not a case really filed against Mr. Alamilla. We felt that the entire claim was directed at Mr. Vega and as such we felt that it was proper for us to make such an application to the court to have that defendant removed."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"Sir, but from a layman's perspective on the outside, it would appear that the government's chief claim against Mr. Andre Vega has had a very huge setback, because Mr. Alamilla was supposed to have been the middle man. He bought the land from Alamilla before the government had to compensate him."

Steve Perrera, Attorney for Hilmar Alamilla
"We applied for Mr. Hilmar Alamilla to be removed based on the fact and the way the pleadings were made against Mr. Alamilla and we felt it was justified for the court to make such an order to remove him after seeing that the claim didn't contain too many allegations against him."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"Would you venture to share your opinion on his absence in the case and its effect agaisnt your client, the other client Mr. Andre Vega?"

Steve Perrera, Attorney for Hilmar Alamilla
"We wouldn't be able to say at this point in time. We just completed this portion of the hearing and now after seeing the results of what transpired this morning, we would then look at Mr. Vega's case once more and then we will decide what we'll do next with that matter."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"At least one of those consideration would have to be how strong the government's case is with the absence of Mr. Alamilla right?"

Steve Perrera, Attorney for Hilmar Alamilla
"Yes indeed, we will definitely be looking at that next."

Court sources tell us that the lawsuit against Sharon Pitts is before the Chief Justice, and it has already had case management hearings.

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