Police Constable Marlon Harris, 35, of Central Farm, Cayo District, avoided jail time yesterday after Justice John “Troadio” Gonzalez decided on a non-custodial sentence, following a jury of five women and four men finding that he was guilty of extorting money from Belize City businessman Ayte Klin-Kelat in late 2008.
Harris was ordered to pay a fine of $10,000 – exactly 100 times the amount he took from Kelat.
After summation on Tuesday morning in the No. 3 Supreme Court, the jury deliberated for some four hours and eleven minutes before returning a unanimous verdict at 3:40 p.m.
Prosecuting for the Crown was Yohhanseh Cave, while Harris was defended by B.Q. Pitts.
In his summation, Justice Gonzalez outlined the elements necessary to prove the charge, namely: 1) whether at the time of the incident, Harris, as a police officer, was a public officer; 2) whether he obtained the money in question; 3) if he obtained that money from Kelat, whether the money was obtained under the cover of his public office; and 4) whether Harris knew at the time that the money was not lawfully obtained in pursuance of his duties.
Extortion is a misdemeanor under sections 284 and 310 of the Criminal Code, with the suggested sentence upon conviction being two years in prison.
Both sides agreed that at the time of the incident on December 1, 2008 at the Celebrity Restaurant, of which Kelat is the manager, Harris was a lawfully employed public officer, working as a police constable in the Belize Police Department and assigned to the Mile 4, Western Highway checkpoint.
Harris and other officers had on November 30, 2008, stopped Kelat’s Nissan Altima, which he was driving in the company of a female friend to Old Belize at Mile 5, and in the process of checking the vehicle’s and Kelat’s particulars, found that the Altima’s insurance had expired 30 days prior.
Harris, who according to Pitts refused alleged overtures from Belize City Council traffic manager Kevaughn Jenkins in person, was told by a senior corporal at the checkpoint and even then-Senior Superintendent (now Assistant Commissioner) of Police and head of Eastern Division, David Henderson, by telephone, to “give the man a break.” He then took Kelat and his companion to the Racoon Street Police Station and formally charged Kelat, and gave him a summons to appear in court the following Tuesday, December 2.
Both sides also agreed that Harris subsequently appeared at the Celebrity Restaurant on Gaol Lane and Marine Parade the following afternoon, and that a conversation of some sort took place between Kelat and Harris, in which $100 changed hands. The prosecution’s and defense’s accounts, respectively, of the substance of the conversation and how the money changed hands, however, differ greatly.
In testimony at the trial, Kelat said he saw a man whom he identified as Harris in police uniform outside Celebrity around 2:00 p.m. that Monday afternoon. Harris told him to come outside and when he came over asked bluntly, “You want to go to court [or not]? If you give me $100, I will give you the paper (summons that would have normally been in the Court’s possession) and sticker (the insurance sticker taken as evidence of expiration).”
When Kelat told him he could only afford $50, Harris insisted on $100, whereupon Kelat went back inside and told a friend of his who was present what was transpiring outside. The friend gave him $100 and he took it back outside, where the exchange took place. The bill, he said, had serial number DA843131. Harris then left the restaurant.
According to ACP Henderson in cross-examination, he was called to the scene and parked about 25 yards from the restaurant on Gaol Lane, where he saw Harris leaving. He went up to him and asked what was in his closed right hand. When Harris opened his hand and Henderson saw the note, he immediately detained his subordinate.
ACP Henderson remembered the serial number on the bill as AD843131.
Speaking from the dock in his own defense, Harris said he was called to the restaurant by one “Pauline,” whom he identified as a female present at the police station during his arrest of Kelat (he was not able to say whether it was the female said to have been traveling with Kelat when they were stopped at the checkpoint).
Harris said he went to the restaurant expecting to see Pauline, but instead encountered Kelat, who began to question him about his case and offering him his choice of food and drink from Celebrity and a chance to gamble at a casino in San Ignacio owned by a relative if he dropped the charges, which Harris said he refused.
Kelat then pressured him, said Harris, into showing him his copy of the summons, which he admitted he had had with him at the time, intending to hand it in to a superior officer at Patrol Branch. According to Harris, Kelat then grabbed the paper and attached sticker and shoved the money into his hands, whereupon Harris claimed he told the businessman he would be charged for bribery.
Harris told the court he was on his way to the Queen Street Police Station, having called on his cell phone for assistance, when he encountered ACP Henderson, who, he said, detained him without asking any questions other than, “Whe pah the money yu jus tek fram dehn people?”
Pitts, in his closing arguments, raised the question of a possible conspiracy among ACP Henderson, Jenkins and Harris’ fellow officers at the checkpoint in response to his virtuous behavior in detaining Kelat, despite their cajoling him to give the businessman a break.
But prosecutor Cave was able to convince the jurors that Harris had interfered with the course of justice by his actions and that there were too many gaps in his story to make it believable.
After the guilty verdict, Pitts asked for immediate mitigation, to which Justice Gonzalez agreed. Pitts was able to argue for the fine based on his client’s otherwise clean record and exemplary behavior prior to the incident, and assured the judge that Harris was “contrite” over his actions.
The fine is due by September 31, 2010, in default of which Harris will spend a 12-month term in jail.