7 News Belize

The Vera Black Eye Shadows The Forensics Dept.
posted (July 26, 2017)

And while the Forensics team has gotten a major upgrade with this donation, it also got a major black eye last month when its ballistics expert Orlando Vera was convicted of abetment to pervert the course of justice.  In the course of the trial it was revealed that he was offering an accused person to use his skills to get a case thrown out - all for a fee, or a bribe.    

So how does this important unit guard itself against that sort of expert corruption?  The Minister today said there is only so much they can do:

Hon. Elodio Aragon - Minister of State, Home Affairs
"Anytime we have certain cases like that it's puts into question our forensic department. Such things will always throw a damper on things but I'm confident that the people are moving forward and they are doing that is necessary to ensure that these things as best as possible does not repeat itself."

Reporter
"Will measures be put in place to make sure that we don't have these kinds of things happening?"

Hon. Elodio Aragon
"Definitely and you have to understand that these things are not processed in our system that was breached, it is a matter that the person that was entrusted with these things that is an unfortunate incident and like I've always said we are working with human beings and at the end of the day we can only account for so much in terms of the systems we have in place but at the end of the day everybody is responsible for their actions."

Vera is serving a jail sentence but energetically appealing his conviction.

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize