Photo: Video footage of Durman Dawson assaulting Lajuana Reynolds
by Charles Gladden
BELIZE CITY, Mon. Mar. 4, 2024
28-year-old Durman Dawson, a police officer attached to the San Ignacio Police Station, is facing sexual assault charges that followed a complaint by a female police officer, 40-year-old Lajuana Reynolds.
The entire incident was captured, a few minutes after 11:00 a.m. on February 14 of this year, via a security camera installed within the station. The footage depicted Reynolds sitting on a chair behind a counter along with two other police officers, when an officer, reportedly Dawson, entered and began to squeeze her left breast.
Immediately, Reynolds cuffed the officer who assaulted her multiple times on the side of the head, apparently in an effort to get him to release her, and the officer retaliated by slapping her. The assault ended when other cops who were present intervened.
“I found that video to be extremely disgusting and troubling and right away, upon seeing it, I gave the directive that the police corporal be arrested and charged and interdicted from duty,” said Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams.
“… We are in an organization where men believe that this is a man’s job. We have gone beyond that, no. This is no longer a man’s job. It is a job for both men and women, and as males in this organization, we must respect our women counterparts. We cannot be in an environment where women believe that they have no say, they have no rights, and that the male can just trample over them. So long as I sit as Commissioner of Police, I’m not going to allow or entertain any such behavior,” ComPol Williams said.
Dawson was charged with sexual assault and harm. When reporters from the local media questioned what appeared to be the department’s intent to cover their fellow officer’s mistakes, the ComPol was angered.
“If there was an intent to cover up, do [you] think the man would have been charged immediately? If there’s an intent to cover up, do you think that he would have been interdicted immediately? Where the hell are you coming from with us trying to cover up something, when we did everything legally and even went beyond … There is nothing that you can do about it, [but] to charge a policeman and interdicted him from duty. What more can I do?” he said.
An internal tribunal is yet to be set up to thoroughly investigate the incident in which Dawson, a career police officer, is charged with sexual assault and harm.