Tonight, Brandon Hertular, 20, a resident of Racecourse Street who said he was looking forward to joining the Police Department in mid-April, charges that although he was charged by police yesterday with harm concerning his ex-girlfriend, he is the victim of domestic abuse.
Yesterday, Brandon was escorted to the Belize City Magistrate’s Court where he was charged with one count of harm against his ex-girlfriend, Indiana Westby, 18.
According to Hertular, his biggest fear at this moment is that police has told him that he could be facing charges of attempted rape and common assault, even though no such charges have been levied against him.
Police press officer, G. Michael Reid, says that Hertular’s girlfriend has also been charged, based on his report against her, but this could not be verified.
Hertular’s problem began on Friday evening when, he said, Westby came over to his sister’s home on George Street to see him. She has asked to talk to him, and he agreed.
During their conversation, he claimed that she began accusing him of having another woman. His sister had already left the house.
He said that she then grabbed him around the neck and began to choke him. He said he pushed her away. According to Hertular, it appeared that when he pushed her away, her own hands went in the eye, but she began accusing him of punching her in the eyes. He claims that after that incident, she told him that if he gave her his cell phone, she would not report the matter to police.
According to Brandon, she began to threaten him. He claims that she told him that she was going to tell her family what he did, and her brother would shoot him.
Hertular said he decided to give her the cell phone, but after she left, it appeared she still told relatives that he punched her in the eye, and additionally, had tried to rape her.
Hertular said that at about 3:00 p.m. on Friday, he visited the Queen Street Police Station and went to the Family Violence Unit (FVU), where he was told he needed to report the matter to Patrol Branch because it was not a matter for the FVU.
At Patrol Branch a woman police constable took Hertular’s report and according to Brandon he read the report and then signed it. The woman then instructed an officer to escort him to his ex-girlfriend’s home, but when the WPC told the officer his name, the officer said that Hertular was wanted on an attempted rape charge at the Crime Investigation Branch (CIB), and he was immediately detained by police.
It appeared that at the time Hertular was making a report at the Patrol Branch office, his ex-girlfriend was making a report against him at the Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB).
According to Brandon, he was never given a medico-legal form, which would have allowed him to be examined by a doctor.
Up until the end of yesterday Brandon said when he checked with the woman police constable with whom he had made the report, Westby had still not been charged.
He claims that the WPC told him that she was given instructions from higher authorities not to charge his ex-girlfriend.
Brandon is out on a $2,500 bail that was granted to him yesterday by a magistrate when he appeared in Court #5 to answer to his harm charge. He pleaded not guilty and the case was adjourned for May 25.
Brandon says that the incident has caused tension between his family and the ex-girlfriend’s family, who live in the same yard with his sister.