BELIZE CITY, Wed. June 5, 2019– Two persons who were charged with possession of 19.3 grams of cannabis were acquitted of the charge yesterday when the police witnesses failed to establish that the two accused persons were in actual possession of the two plastic bags in which the drugs were found.
What emerged from the case ought to force the police to take a closer look at the methods they employ to carry out some of their duties. Magistrate Michelle Trapp, who heard the case, said in her ruling that the stop-and-search tactics that the police employed to arrest Norman Castillo, a 32-year-old businessman, and a 17-year-old minor, were unconstitutional, because the police had not established a probable cause for stopping and searching the two individuals.
In addition, the police had also failed to prove the charge of possession of a controlled drug, she said.
On the night of March 14, 2019, Castillo and the minor were riding on a motorcycle on the Philip Goldson Highway in the vicinity of Buttonwood Bay.
A police mobile patrol unit spotted the two and for reasons unknown, decided to pull them over. With sirens screaming on the highway, the cops raced after the two persons on the motorcycle.
What emerged in the evidence during the trial was that the police said they saw one of the men throw a Belikin bottle away. Police did not attempt to retrieve the bottle that allegedly was thrown.
Before the motorcycle came to a stop, the police claim, one of the persons was seen shuffling something under the waist of his pants.
Police testified that they found the two plastic bags and a purple handkerchief near the motorcycle’s stand, when the motorcycle stopped and was put on its stand.
In their evidence, however, the police failed to mention anything about the purple handkerchief, Magistrate Trapp pointed out.
Attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley, who represented the two accused, said in his submission to the court that if the police had weighed the two plastic bags separately, they would have found that individually, the bags were within the 10 grams allowable under the law.
Magistrate Trapp, in her summary of the evidence presented, also questioned why the police did not weigh the two bags separately, since they were charging the two persons on the motorcycle.
The police had also failed to prove possession by the two men, because the two bags were found when the motorcycle came to a stop, and the police’s evidence did not indicate that they saw the bags dropped near the motorcycle’s stand, where they were found.
Magistrate Trapp also observed that the police had given no reason, “as per the Constitution of Belize,” as to why the two persons on the motorcycle were stopped.
In other words, the police did not establish probable cause for stopping the two persons on the motorcycle.
“No evidence was presented as it relates to possession, and I find the stop-and-search to be unconstitutional,” Magistrate Trapp declared. “I accept the no-case submission; gentlemen you are free to go,” she told the men.