They've been locked down now for 33 days but Andrew "Pawpa" Brown and his brother Floyd will have to wait at least until the weekend is over, another five days, before they find out if they will be going home on bail.
This afternoon Chief Magistrate Herbert Lord said he would rule next Tuesday morning on the application for bail made by the Brown legal team. Junior-counsel Richard "Dickie" Bradley took the lead today as he spent the entire morning, and most of the afternoon, arguing why the brothers deserve bail.
Bradley said it would amount to discrimination if bail were denied since both brothers have been jailed since July 15th. He argued that they have been forced to languish in prison while their father, who is battling cancer and gravely ill, deteriorates in the hospital. He also pointed out that the third defendant in the case, Steve "Insect" Reneau, who was indicted along with the Brown brothers for drug crimes allegedly committed in Florida is free on a quite slight US$7,500 bail in Miami. He stressed that the Brown brothers are not flight risks since they are confident they will not be extradited.
And though Solicitor General Elson Kaseke wasn't in court today, Bradley also accused him of purposefully delaying the case. Senior Crown Counsel Godwin Arzu sat in for Kaseke and he told the court that the Sol Gen was "unavoidably absent." He took all of ten minutes to reply to Bradley's 3 hour argument saying that while there is the liberty of the accused, Belize also has obligations under the extradition treaty and there is no precedent for a Magistrate to grant bail. Moreover he said the Brown case is not appropriate for bail. When asked why by Chief Magistrate Lord, Arzu replied that he was instructed to oppose bail since the prosecution will try to get its appeal heard expeditiously.
It's a reply that Bradley called less than robust and after, he told us what he thinks his chances are since he is asking the Chief Magistrate to do so something no other lower court judge has ever done before.
Richard "Dickie" Bradley, Attorney for Brown Brothers
"The court has the inherent jurisdiction and power to grant bail and all that the Chief Magistrate, or the committal Magistrate, needs to take into account is whether the particular circumstances of this case as it is unfolding in front of him is one in which he should exercise his authority and jurisdiction to grant bail to Andrew and Floyd Brown.
We have given sufficient legal precedent that he can exercise his jurisdiction that the inordinate delays which are now unfolding, bear in mind that Floyd Brown has not even started his trial and in the case of Andrew Brown we are looking at October, November, and until the prosecution starts to come with all these submissions and delays. So I suspect the Chief Magistrate will have felt a bit more comfortable if he had a requisite number of rebuttals based on legal issues as to why he should not make history and offer bail to two citizens of Belize who are languishing in prison and who I want to emphasize to your viewers, the third defendant Steve Reneau has been offered bail in the United States of America on the 28th day of July in the sum of US$7,500 and in our case the trial has even started for one defendant and we can't get no indication from out of the prosecution that, 'listen man we suspect that in a month's time we will finish at least the committal proceedings.' This is very serious that two citizens can just sit in jail and their lives put on hold wile we are bickering over legal matters which they are conceding they take to be a regular part of thing."
Keith Swift,
What do you think the chances of success are since it has never been done at the Magistrate Court level and you yourself has asked the Chief Magistrate to trail blaze?
Richard "Dickie" Bradley,
"He has never flinched in terms of being a trail blazer so I think that if he is satisfied, we are hoping that our clients will be able to be out on bail."
Bradley also noted in court that the granting of bail will not frustrate the extradition treaty. The Brown brothers are wanted in Miami, Florida for allegedly importing and distributing cocaine in the United States. They were indicted by a grand jury in 2003 for allegedly importing 18.1 kilos of cocaine, which landed at Miami's Port Everglades in November of 1999. The defense in the case says the Sol Gen's appeal to the Chief Justice could delay the case until October.
