Meanwhile, Steven Buckley, Lopez’s alleged victim, is incapacitated, unable to earn a living by working
BELIZE CITY, Tues. July 30, 2019– On the night of Wednesday, April 28, 2010, Steven Buckley was returning to his home on George Street from his job site on Ross Pen Road. He was in the cab of a pickup truck that was traveling on Kraal Road. At the same time police were looking for a pickup truck that was involved in a shooting incident.
According to police, Inspector Dennis Lopez fired his police-issued 12-gauge pump-action shotgun into the windshield of the pickup truck in which Buckley was traveling, hitting him in the face. Buckley had to be admitted into the Intensive Care Unit at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he managed to beat the odds and remained alive, but the injury from the shotgun blast left him paralyzed on one side of his body.
Steven Buckley was partially compensated by the Government of Belize, but he has not been fully compensated, his attorney, Richard “Dickie” Bradley, has confirmed.
Not only has Buckley not been fully compensated, but the police officer who allegedly shot him, Inspector Dennis Lopez, is back on active duty.
Lopez initially was placed on interdiction pending the outcome of his criminal case for the offense of attempted murder.
Where is the justice for Steven Buckley? The incident had raised a massive public outcry, and Inspector Lopez was arraigned on the charge and placed on interdiction.
Normally, under those circumstances, police hold their own internal, disciplinary hearing. If a hearing was held and an internal investigation cleared Inspector Lopez, there is still the result of the criminal case that must be concluded before he can be properly reinstated.
However, Inspector Lopez is back on active duty, while his criminal case is still before the court. Steven Buckley, meanwhile, is awaiting the conclusion of that criminal case to commence a civil action against Inspector Lopez for incapacitating him, making him unable to earn a living by working.
In January 2018, when we inquired from the Director of Prosecutions (DPP) about the status of the attempted murder indictment against Inspector Lopez, DPP Cheryl-Lynn Vidal told us that her office was ready to proceed with trial but there was no judge available to try the case. The case was initially assigned to Supreme Court Justice John “Troadio” Gonzalez, but he retired from the bench before the case was heard.
The question that the Police Department needs to answer is, how could Inspector Lopez be reinstated into the Police Department on active duty, while his criminal case is still before the Supreme Court?
When we checked with the Marshall for Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Williams, to whom Justice Gonzalez’s backlog of cases had been assigned, we were told by the Marshall that Dennis Lopez’ attempted murder case is not on their list of cases. The case apparently has not been assigned to any judge yet.