Supreme Court Justice Minnet Hafiz-Bertram today delivered judgment in the separately filed but collectively considered claims of Micah Thompson, 30; Shelton “Pinky” Tillett, 30; and the late Charles Woodye, 23, all of Belize City, against the Attorney General, Commissioner of Police and Assistant Superintendent and Officer Commanding San Pedro Formation, Dennis Arnold.
Fisherman and tour guide John Paul Saldivar, 28, of San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye, had been found dead on the beach in the Rocky Point area on the north of the island on January 30, 2009, his body exhibiting bullet holes and showing signs of torture.
A few days later, on February 3, two more bodies – those of James Swan and Edward Gutierrez – were found in shallow graves to the immediate north of the site where Saldivar’s body was found.
Police at the time had believed the murders were connected and related to a drug drop falling into the wrong hands. They arrested Gabriel Salazar, Frank Edwards, Tillett, Thompson, Woodye, Brionne Swift, Alex Soler, Eric Swan, Victor Garnett and Carl Patnett.
Tillett, Thompson, Woodye, Swan and Patnett were charged specifically with relation to Saldivar’s death.
But in January of 2010, the charges against all five men were withdrawn in the San Pedro Magistrate’s Court on a directive from Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Cheryl-Lynn Vidal, who insisted to San Pedro Police that there was insufficient evidence against the group.
Thompson, Tillett and Woodye thereafter sued for damages for false imprisonment in the sum of $200,000, as well as aggravated and exemplary damages for injury to reputation and loss of liberty, special damages for recovery of attorneys’ fees to fight the case – $10,000 – and loss of earnings for Woodye of $18,658.10.
The claimants claim that on the night of January 30, 2009, police found nothing incriminating on Thompson and Woodye during a search conducted on them when they were collared near the Boca Del Rio Bridge, which connects North Ambergris Caye to the southern, more populated end of the island (where San Pedro Town is located).
Tillett had on him US$1,800 currency, but possession of that amount of currency is not an offense in itself.
Nonetheless, police took Thompson, Tillett and Woodye from the bridge and detained them at the San Pedro police station, apparently leaving the others who were with them alone. At trial, they said that they were told that they had been detained in connection with a kidnapping and shooting when they asked for the reason for their detention. In their witness statements for the case, they say they had gone out to the island to visit friends, while police said they had told them that they had gone out to buy a vehicle.
They were initially detained for 48 hours on the island and then released. Thompson said he was picked up for further questioning in Belize City on February 7, 2009, and held for 48 hours, then questioned by an Inspector before being released on the appearance of his attorney, Kareem Musa.
After being informed a week later that he was wanted for murder and conspiracy, he and Charles Woodye went to the Queen Street police station and were arrested and charged; Tillett was likewise arrested and charged after being picked up.
ASP Arnold, in his witness statement, recounted the facts of in the investigation, starting with the report, around 5:45 p.m. on January 30, 2009, of gunfire in the Rocky Point area. On proceeding to the area they came upon a boat going in the opposite direction, carrying Eric Swan and others. Swan, according to Arnold, tried to escape and was shot by police who had boarded the boat.
The police and BDF party turned back and thereafter Arnold encountered the claimants/former accused on the bridge along with others and, becoming suspicious of what they were doing on the island at that time and knowing of their alleged connections to the George Street gang, dealt with them as above. He then traveled via boat to the Tranquility Bay area and met with witnesses who explained that Swift, Soler, Garnett and the deceased were in the area when shots were fired. The others apparently lost track of Saldivar, whose body was later discovered. One witness claimed to have seen the claimants in the area at the time of the shooting.
At trial (civil proceedings), when ASP Arnold took the stand and was asked by attorney for the three claimants, Agnes Segura-Gillett of Arnold and Company, to go through the witness statements given by himself and other witnesses in the case in 2009, he could not find any reference to the three accused by name that placed them at the scene of the murder.
In fact, the only evidence tying the three accused to the scene was not even in the file on the Saldivar murder, but in the one for the Gutierrez/Swan double murder case – a statement alleging that the trio were seen in the area that night.
The defense submitted that the detentions and arrests were lawful, and that the police need only have had good cause to arrest and charge the group on the bridge, who were “men of ill repute, not from San Pedro, but Belize City…”
They further contended that the act of the magistrate to remand the accused was safe from challenge, and that damages were limited to the one hour for which Thompson was held on February 14, 2009, and the same amount of time that Tillett and Woodye were held on February 16, 2009.
Justice Hafiz-Bertram agreed with the claimants that reasonable suspicion had not been established for their detentions and subsequent arrests, since there was no evidence linking them to the events in Rocky Point, or to any conspiracy, and they were not seen behaving suspiciously.
The court also heard from the claimants on the matter of damages. All three said they had been incarcerated in the “supermax” section of the Central Prison, reserved for the most dangerous criminals; Tillett said he had never been incarcerated before and the subsequent strain cost him his marriage of about a year and forced him to become the sole provider to his three children.
Thompson said he was denied the opportunity to work to provide for his two children and suffered mental anguish as a result of being locked up in the same area as the man (not identified) who he said was convicted for killing his mother.
Woodye, for his part, reported that he had been employed as a records clerk with the Department of Housing and Planning and lost that job on his incarceration; even after being released, he was unable to get one until this year.
On the matter of damages, Segura-Gillett had relied on the unreported case of Police Constable Gilbert Hyde, who was released from a charge of conspiracy to commit murder in March of 2008, thereafter sued for false imprisonment, and won a $20,000 judgment, while Crown Counsel Nigel Hawke argued that the defendants should get nothing because they were remanded by the magistrate hearing the case. The judge considered that that decision was not independently made; the magistrate was barred from making a decision on a plea or bail by the statutes that deny bail for murder, which is an indictable offence.
But the judge noted that in Hyde’s case, he was acting as a police officer who was detained and “disgraced” by his fellow officers, wrongly as it turned out.
In similar cases, the length of the detention is taken into account, but awards are on a progressively reducing scale where the claimant gets more compensation for the initial shock of arrest. While the defendants proved that they were wrongly detained for over 11 months, their case, the judge said, should be decided on its own merit and not based on the award in another case.
With that, Madam Justice Hafiz-Bertram set the compensation at $25,000 for each defendant. Thompson, Tillett and Woodye shared one attorney, Kareem Musa, who was paid $5,000 jointly to defend the case and attend the various adjournments. That cost was split three ways, but Tillett got back an additional $5,000 for the cost of his retention of Senior Counsel Ellis Arnold.
On special damages, the court cited Woodye’s lost earnings and set recovery at $8,459, based on his fortnightly payments of $384.50. Costs were awarded to each defendant for $6,666.50 (Thompson); $7,916 (Tillett) and $8,721.25 (Woodye).
Segura-Gillett told reporters afterward that she was “disappointed” with the damages given, but said she would leave it to her clients to advise her on whether they should be challenged.
While awaiting the decision in the case, Charles Woodye was killed in the Dolphin Street fire station while playing dominoes on August 14, 2011. The Gang Suppression Unit (GSU) harassed area residents coming back from his funeral almost two weeks later on August 26, provoking a violent standoff that in turn led to the ongoing truce among the majority of City gangs, including George Street, which the Prime Minister recently credited for a sharp reduction in murders in Belize City in September and October.