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The Pinelo family trauma after devastating police brutality

GeneralThe Pinelo family trauma after devastating police brutality


?We feel very worried, sad, [and] angry, knowing and seeing them hurting my son like this,? said Emil?s parents, who said they had witnessed the two officers brutalizing their son on their own premises.


Police Constables #903 Cyril Wade and #666 Clayton Marin, who were arraigned in the San Ignacio Magistrate?s Court for dangerous harm to Emil on Tuesday morning.


However, the Commissioner of Police and the victim?s relatives say they are upset that the cops were offered $10,000 bail, plus a surety of the same amount, which they met the same day.


The prosecution had strongly objected to bail after the Commissioner of Police said that the officers should be remanded for their actions.


The men are due to reappear in court on October 14; however, we understand that they have both been placed on interdiction pending the result of their court case, and they will face a disciplinary tribunal of the Police Department as well.


Meanwhile, Emil?s brother, Jaime Carlos Benjamin Pinelo, said that the family is now praying for Emil?that he will make it through his ordeal.


On Monday, September 13, Emil had 25 inches of his intestines removed and the family alleges that his condition is a direct result of a bad beating that he got earlier that day from two rogue San Ignacio cops.


According to the brother, popularly known as ?Benji,? Dr. Ken, who operated on Emil, has told them that even after the 32-year-old father leaves the hospital, he would have to survive on Ensure?a nutrition drink?since he would not be able to eat solid foods a while.


Emil was in obvious pain when we visited him at the hospital in Belmopan this evening. His throat, marred with scratches, hurt so badly that he could barely speak.


As we reported in the headline story of our mid-week edition, Emil?s horrific encounter with police began at his parents? home on Joseph Andrews Drive in San Ignacio Town.


?At 1:00 a.m. or thereabouts, I heard a motorcycle stop in front of my kitchen,? recounted the father, Benjamin Pinelo, ?I opened the door and peeped. I saw one of my younger sons get off the motorcycle??


Emil had been taken home by his brother, Benji, who went to Legends, a local nightclub after he left his brother at home.


It was not long thereafter that two police officers arrived at the Pinelo home. By this time, the parents had gone to bed and Emil was near the kitchen with two friends, Shannon and another young man nicknamed ?Burger.?


?I was lying down for about five minutes or less when I heard screaming outside my yard,? the father continued. ?Me and my wife, we hurriedly got up, ran to the door and opened it, and I saw the boy [Burger, a friend] that was screaming, pointing. He said, they will kill him [Emil].


?When he pointed, I saw two police officers dragging Emil, so I ran inside, put on my short pants and I ran out.


?By this time, when I ran out, they [the two officers and Emil] were at the police car. I saw one of the police hold him down, and take his wrist and twisted it, pulling [Emil?s] hand behind him, and the other police hitting him in the back. And I went to the police and told him stop beating him; you don?t have to beat him.


?So the police, a ?coolie?-looking police, told me, ?You get out of this, otherwise I will arrest you too?? He told me he would arrest me for obstruction of duty.


?The police that was hauling [Emil] by the hand to get inside the car came out, and they both held him and pushed him to the ground, and held his hand behind his back. When they twisted both hands behind his back, I saw them put cuffs, and then they started punching him down on the ground. [An officer] kicked him in the back. So I hollered again?


?I don?t know what got into me to not react and do something violent.?


At this point, the parents sent a message with a family friend to Benji, to tell him what happened. The officers, the father said, picked Emil up off the ground and put him inside the police car, while the father continued his plea for them to ?ease up? on his son.


According to Mr. Pinelo, his son, Emil, tried to struggle with the officers when they began twisting his arm and giving him a chokehold.


?When they put him inside the car, I told the driver (Suncal Alerio), ?Please Suncal, me and you da friend. Please si dat deh no beat ah,? Mr. Pinelo said.


Ms. Maria said that one of the officers pushed her away when she pleaded with him, saying: ?Please let go mi son. Yuh wah bruk ?e han.?


Despite the protests from Emil?s parents, the two cops and their driver drove off with Emil and the beatings apparently did not stop.


Benji said that by the time he arrived at his parents? home, the police had already taken his brother. His parents went inside to change their clothes, and together they went down to the police station to check on Emil.


?It took about 5 to 10 minutes to get ready and go down to the station,? the father recalled. ?I did not think the beating would have continued.?


According to Mr. Pinelo, it was after the cops took Emil away from their home that he got his worst beating. When his relatives arrived at the police station, they were shocked to see the condition that Emil was in.


The father told us that, ?When I arrived at the police station, I saw Emil Pinelo bleeding from the two sides of the head. (He wasn?t bleeding when he left home.) He was in pain, bending over, holding his belly and vomiting.


?When we got to the police station, I demanded to see my little brother. In a nice way, I went and asked the officer, ?Please mek a si mi lee bredda?? They refused,? Benji said.


Nobody was at the front of the police station; two of them were in the back. They refused to let him see his brother.


According to Benji Pinelo, the detainees started shouting out to him: ?Deh seh, ?Bwoy ?Benj,? ker yuh bredda da di hospital e seh ?Deh jus beat up yuh lee bredda. Deh gat a down da ground; di vomit blood; e seh, ?Watch how deh di wash down di blood.? I saw them doing that,? he recounted.


?He come to di door di hold e abdomen. E seh, ?Bredda, get mi outa yah;? E seh, ?Ker mi outa ya;? e seh, ?Dem bally beat mi up, deh bally f*** mi up,?? the brother continued.


Benji contends that the two officers who had beaten his brother at their parents? home continued to beat him at the police station, but left before the relatives arrived at the station. The two officers the relatives met when they got to the station were two other officers he described as being of Mayan descent.


These two officers, Benji said, refused to let him take Emil to get medical attention. ?They tried to force him into the cell and he said, ?I no gwine ina no cell; I gwine da dacta.??


He said that when he saw his brother at the station, he was wearing only pants?no shirt, no shoes and no belt. The officers, he claimed, did this to Emil, because he had left home fully clothed.


?I pleaded with the two officers at the station [not the same two who hauled him away from his home], ?Please let us take this man to the hospital. He has pain,?? said Mr. Pinelo, Emil?s father, who had also gone down to the station with Benji along with his wife.


The police, according to Emil?s relatives, refused to release the detainee to take him to the hospital. Their excuse was that they did not have the authority to let him go, even though he had not been arrested and charged for any particular crime, the relatives claim.


?I asked to take my son to the hospital, because if my son dead, I will sue,? Ms. Maria said she told the officers.


The family claims that one of the officers? reply was: ?If ?e dead, ?e jus dead!?


?So we stood there for over 40 to 45 minutes, waiting for a long time. Then a corporal came and he immediately looked at the boy [Emil] and said, ?Yes, this boy has to go to the hospital,?? Mr. Pinelo said. ?He personally got the medical form, and took him to the San Ignacio Hospital, along with my son, Jamie [Benji].?


While the brother rode in the police vehicle with Emil and the corporal, the father and mother got in a separate vehicle and followed them to the San Ignacio Hospital.


Benji said: ?According to what I understand from my brother and my nephew, prior to this incident, they were confronted by this same officer [one of the accused cops] in civilian clothes at a ?Chiney? restaurant called Blue Angels, and he looked at my brother and tell ah, ?Whe di f*** yuh di watch me fa. Yuh like si me??


?So my bredda responded that, ?Watch ya, I da noh no faggit. I no like si no f***ing man. E seh an di bwoy tell ah, ?Well step up, cause ah no like yuh fan time.? An he tell ah, watch yah, I no deh pan deh timing, because if I gat anyting wit yuh, you wah wait until yuh deh ina yuh uniform fi chance mi.? E seh, ?So I no wah gat any problem wit yuh betta yuh walk weh because yuh drunk.?


?So dat night [Monday] because he saw my brotha, an my brotha tell him fi mek I lef di guy alone, E jump pa he instead.? E seh dat, ?Dah you a wah lang time??


?I think it?s something personal between dem two, exchange ah words, and he took di advantage being along and being wit ada policeman.??


?Mi bredda tell ah in front ah me, I no wah deny it, e seh, ?One to one, yuh caan chance mi,? e seh, but unu chance mi between all ah unu,? e seh, ?Unu handcuff mi, an beat mi up. I seh, ?E shoulda lef mi deh an mek wi fight one-one;? e seh, ?But unu handcuff mi and kick mi up ina mi stomach???


After the corporal permitted Emil to get medical attention at the San Ignacio Hospital, he was examined, and the medics there were about to release him back into police custody for detention, according to his relatives. Benji said, however, that they insisted that he be kept overnight for observation.


At about 7:30 to 8:00 the following morning, said Benji, he received a call saying that his brother needed to be taken to Loma Luz for an ultrasound, since he had been complaining of pain.


Dr. Mesa examined him at Loma Luz and said that Benji needed surgery right away. The officer called the police station and told them what the doctor said. The superintendent, driver and two other officers in a separate vehicle went to Loma Luz, but said that he had to go back to San Ignacio, even though Loma Luz was prepared to do the surgery right there, the brother also said.


After his relatives paid their bill for $149 at Loma Luz, Emil was taken back to the San Ignacio Hospital, but later transferred to the Belmopan Hospital. They arrived at about noon. Surgery began about 1:00 p.m., and he was not out of surgery until about 6:00 that evening, the brother recalled.


Asked what the prognosis is for his brother, Benji told us: ?I talk to di docta dis morning and he said so far he came out of surgery good. ?E seh jus pray and see how it come out? because the intestines have been cut and joined? and anything could happen between now and next week. It could get infected. It could start leaking inside. It could develop fistulas?


??E can?t eat and even when ?e come outa di hospital, ?e wah can?t even eat solid food. ?E wah haftu deh pa Ensure,? he lamented.


Benji said that he and Emil have a very close relationship. He had lost his second brother to leukemia two years ago, and has stood by his brother?s bedside caring for him since the incident, because, he told us, he cannot afford to lose his younger brother.

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