Anthony "Boots" Martinez is tonight looking at a charge for assaulting an officer of the court. Boots says he was at the Magistrate's Court attending to some business pertaining to a couple of his constituents when he was served with a committal warrant. That means he was to have been locked up on site. If viewers will remember this is the same kind of warrant that Marshall Nunez was served with a few weeks before the city council elections on March 1st. Well like Marshall, Boots was not locked up but he did question the warrant and as he was in the process of doing so when he claims a bailiff, Gabriel Casey, tried to detain him and in the process assaulted him. But while that's Boot's story Casey has a story of his own and today he served Martinez with a charge of assault. We today spoke to Martinez who gave us a rundown of the entire incident.
Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez, UDP Port Loyola Area Rep.
"While at the Magistrate's Court PC Melendez came to me and he said he had something for me. I asked if it was a summons and he said no. I asked if it was a distress (warrant), he said no and told me he had a committal warrant. So I asked for what and he told me I could read it and it involves an incident of which I was a co-signer to a $500 loan for a constituent of mine who still lives at the same spot, who missed a couple payments, and obviously the thing was taken to court. I was never informed by the court but first and foremost why I find it mind boggling is because for starters I think the first recourse is to collect from the person who borrowed from you, that person was never summoned.
But farther than that, the policeman had a committal warrant which means that I had to pay or go to jail. I had no problem with that. I said I would talk to the Chief Magistrate about the circumstances of how it reached to that. Well while walking away I felt someone came between me and the policeman and just grab me from behind and you know I flunged like a tarpon and I heard this man saying he is Mr. Casey and he is the bailiff. Well they didn't serve me with any warrant so how could they to me and, apart from that, I didn't know who was coming. It is only human reaction; the police was right beside me. As a matter of fact the bailiff almost knocked down the policeman.
Going back today with the same issue, in terms of the extension for one of my constituents, I was hurriedly served with a summons by a corporal. Going up to Magistrate's Court this afternoon, the bailiff saw me, he rushed inside a courtroom, and asked the Ombudsman's assistant to sign as a JP on a charge sheet, a summons for me to appear in court on the 25th of April."
Alfonso Noble,
What is the charge?
Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez,
"Assaulting a bailiff contrary to section 40(a) of the inferior court act and chapter 94 of the laws of Belize. But I will make a formal complaint about his assault on me on Monday morning."
Alfonso Noble,
Do you think he had a right to try and detain you, he is, after all, an officer of the court and under the inferior courts jurisdiction he has authority to detain somebody on the strength of a committal warrant?
Hon. Anthony "Boots" Martinez,
"But you don't detain somebody by coming from behind and grabbing someone. If you are a officer you must approach someone and say you are arresting them or something of the sort. Nobody, I don't care, in their rightful sense, if you want to arrest somebody, you don't attack them from behind and look to jump on people. Who knows who it is jumping on them from behind? So you have to real, you have to act in a civil way."
Martinez says he is in the process of questioning how it was that he was never served with a bench warrant, or a distress warrant and ended up only being served with the final resort of a committal warrant. He also says the person whom he co-signed for was never notified of any court action or any attempt was made to collect the monies from her. He says she could have easily been located.
