Yesterday, prominent Free Zone businessman Curtis Arnold was arrested and charged for raping a 17-year-old girl. And while Superintendent James Magdaleno has denied charges that there has been political meddling in the case, today attorney for Arnold, Michael Peyrefitte disagreed. He says the entire thing is riddled with irregularities, beginning with the head of the National Crimes Investigation Branch arresting Arnold himself.
Michael Peyrefitte, Arnold’s Attorney
“How often has Mr. Magdaleno personally gone not to investigate, but to arrest an individual and detain that individual personally without even the knowledge of the Corozal Police Department in this case. Mr. Magdaleno went into the Free Zone to arrest Mr. Arnold and with that arrest, what he did was he totally embarrassed Mr. Arnold which was completely unnecessary.
Clearly the plan yesterday, or rather Wednesday, was to embarrass him by going into the Free Zone and arrest him, handcuff him, and take him to the Corozal Police Station. When I called the Corozal Police Station they informed me that they had no knowledge of what was going on.
So while certainly Mr. Magdaleno has the right to go all over the country to do his investigations in his capacity, what he has done has been highly unusual. So the question is that what provoked Mr. Magdaleno to take this step, this
unusual step. What provoked Mr. Magdaleno to call a press conference on the arrest of an individual? How many times have we seen a press conference being called by Mr. Magdaleno? All of this is highly, highly unusual.
When he mentions about it being a sensitive case, there is nothing sensitive about this. We have many allegations and made accusations of rape everyday. What is so special about this particular case? The medical report clearly shows that in no way there was any connection or any indication that she had sexual intercourse with anybody during that time. There was no sign of sexual intercourse much less forced sexual intercourse. There was no sign of any semen, any DNA, any hairs, nothing like that that would indicate that even sexual activity had occurred, much less a rape.”
Alfonso Noble,
Are you of the opinion that both the young lady and Mr. Magdaleno are being guided by other forces outside, for the young lady her personal view and Mr. Magdaleno, outside of his office?
Michael Peyrefitte,
“Absolutely that has to be it. What else could it be?”
Alfonso Noble,
Who is the prodding Mr. Peyrefitte?
Michael Peyrefitte,
“Well I mean it is no secret as to what is going on with the whole Free Zone scenario. Mr. Arnold has developed some very positive enemies within the Corozal Free Zone establishment. I would take a Mark Espat stand right now, you know exactly who we are talking about. You know exactly who is enemies are ever since this scenario with the Free Zone these things have now come about of which there is absolutely no evidence. It is clearly only an attempt to embarrass him and clearly only an attempt to teach him a lesson not to mess with us. That is what they are telling him: don’t mess with us or we will put our police after you. That is what is going on here.”
