In 2011, the George Street Three: Sheldon "Pinky" Tillett, Micah Thompson and Charles Woodeye successfully sued the Government of Belize for false imprisonment. The trio spent 11 months in supermax on the allegation that they had murdered John Paul Saldivar. But as was shown in Court, police didn't have a shred of evidence pointing to that - except for the fact that they happened to be on San Pedro on the same night when he was killed on northern Ambergris Caye. The Supreme Court found that they were entitled to twenty five thousand dollars each in general damages, far less than the two hundred thousand dollars they had asked for.
From there, it should have been straightforward enough for government to pay up and put an embarrassing episode of police abuse behind them - but, quite unexpectedly, the Government appealed.
And, when they went to before the Court of Appeal in June of 2014, the Panel of judges didn't seem very impressed by the acting Solicitor General Nigel Hawke's arguments that no payment should be made. In fact, they ended up hearing from Agnes Segura-Gillett who represented the three men on why the award should be increased.
Today, the decision was handed down - and it upheld the Supreme Court judgment. Segura-Gillett told us more:..
Agnes Segura-Gillett, attorney
"Well, the appeals were dismissed, the judgment was upheld with regards to the issue of liability. However, we have filed a respondent's notice. Our clients were awarded general damages in the sum of $25,000 each when the matter came before the supreme court and we were of the view that the sum was a bit low in light of other decisions that had been held throughout the Caribbean and so we have ask the court of appeal to increase the award of general damages. The increase has not been what we would have wanted, however, it has gone up from $25,000 to $30,000 per respondent and so the cost has also been awarded to the respondents. So the government would have to pay for the cost of the appeal and I believe that it's a very important decision. Every day on the news, we hear of persons who are wrongfully arrested, wrongfully detained and charged and you hear them remanded to prison for months, years in some instances and then they are released because a nolle pros is entered. There is insufficient evidence to ground the charges, so I believe that it sends a message to the police department, for them to conduct proper investigation before they detain person, before they charged persons because these persons are deprived of their liberties."
Jules Vasquez
"Has your client indicated if they want a further appeal to the CCJ or have they had enough?"
Agnes Segura-Gillett, attorney
"Only one of our initial client is alive. I believe that this matter was filed in 2010. It's been a number of years. It has taken a toll on everyone and my clients are just happy that this day has come and that they've gotten judgment and they are willing to move on with their lives at this point. So, we are just hoping that payment would be forthcoming in the near future and everybody can get on with their lives."
And while her clients won't appeal, Government can still do so within 21 days. As noted in the interview, Government also has to pay costs, which were about twenty three thousand dollars twenty for all three at the Supreme Court level. So, in total, with the appeal and cross appeal at the higher court, the entire misadventure will now end up costing the government about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
And also as noted in the interview, two of the claimants, Sheldon Pinky Tillett and Charles Woodeye were killed before the case came to completion.
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