Hon. Edmond “Clear the Land” Castro, Minister of State in the Ministry of Works and area representative for Belize Rural North, was today vindicated in #7 Magistrate’s Court after Oscar Pollard was fined $200 and court costs on the charge of using insulting words.
The Minister of State claimed that Pollard, a contractor for the refurbishment of the Maskall Health Centre, insulted him in April of 2008 in the presence of several persons.
Hon. Castro, 42, alleges that on Friday, April 18, 2008, he visited the Maskall Health Centre, which is being refurbished for $100,000 through the Social Investment Fund (SIF). While there and pointing out to camera operators accompanying him what he alleged at the time was the “poor standard” of the work, the Minister says Pollard, of Young’s Engineering, refused them an interview and furthermore told him to “take the camera and shove it up your (Castro’s) a**.”
The statement was made in the presence of a number of people, including the workmen present on the public property. Young’s Engineering manager Carlton Young, and Oscar Alonzo, director of SIF, appeared on local television several days later to defend Pollard against Hon. Castro’s allegations, which had been aired on a local television station that Friday night.
One of the cameramen, Fortunato Noble, 35, told Magistrate Ed Usher in court today that he personally witnessed Pollard insult Hon. Castro, and was himself insulted and threatened.
The Minister of State, testifying in court this morning, said he believes Pollard, whom he considers a critic of his, meant to do it.
But this afternoon Pollard, represented by attorney Arthur Saldivar, denied repeatedly from the witness stand that he had ever insulted Hon. Castro; instead, he reported, he left the premises and informed SIF of the incident, although they could not make it to the premises at the time. As he remembered it, he said, he told his workmen and Castro, “Ah gwain and ah wahn come back and we wahn see whe wahn happen.”
Pollard added that he was upset at the way Hon. Castro and the camera operators barged into the premises, and especially the way the area rep proceeded to find fault with the standard of his work; he felt, he said, that he was doing “a good job.”
Defense witness Eric Frazier said this afternoon that he never heard Hon. Castro being insulted by his boss and denied that either he or Pollard behaved badly toward the Minister before Pollard left the premises, first to make the call to SIF and later to go to Belize City for the men’s pay.
Magistrate Usher, in summing up, compared the case to one brought before Chief Magistrate Margaret McKenzie last year, during the run-up to general elections, in which now-suspended Senior Superintendent of Police Chester Williams alleged that City Councilor Mark King called him a “f——n PUP” during their run-in at Freetown Road and Saint Thomas Street last November. The Chief Magistrate had ruled in King’s favor, stating that the alleged insult was actually descriptive of the noun “PUP”, and in her view, never directly insulted Williams.
Conversely, Magistrate Usher found today that the statement Pollard made was directed at Castro personally, and whether it was intended or not, it made him guilty of the charge.
The case was brought under Section 4 (1) (11) of the Summary Jurisdiction Offences (Petty Offences) Act, Chapter 98 of the Laws of Belize.
Pollard offered no comment to Amandala as he left the court.
Hon. Castro, on the other hand, had plenty to say. When we asked if he felt it was necessary to go this far with the case, he responded that he did, because he felt Pollard needed to be “taught a lesson.” He further alleges that this is not the first time he has had run-ins with Pollard, the chairman of the Lucky Strike Village Council and allegedly a staunch Opposition PUP supporter, as last year, before he was elected, he reported a threat to Ladyville police in which Pollard threatened to harm him.
According to Hon. Castro the project, begun in November of 2007, has not yet been completed.
Pollard’s fine comes due on July 31, 2008. If he defaults, he will go to jail for a month.