In February of 2007, it made national headlines when police constables Allison Mushler and Lawrence Flowers were charged with human trafficking. Police said that the pair were caught smuggling 8 Central American immigrants at a checkpoint on the Northern Highway. There were 6 Salvadorans and 2 Hondurans who had no travel documents; they had illegally entered the country through the Western Border a week earlier.
It was presented to the media and the public like an open and shut case of rogue cops caught in the act. But that’s not how it played out in Corozal Magistrate’s Court. The charges were thrown out of yesterday after 6 adjournments over the past 13 months. And that’s because Police failed to present a case file. Every single time the case went to court.
And so, Magistrate Leslie Hamilton yesterday dismissed the charges. Mushler faced 8 counts of human trafficking, one count of purportedly aiding and abetting of human smuggling. Lawrence Flowers was arraigned for assisting Mushler in the transporting of human traffickers. As we said those charges have now been dismissed.
But there are still other matters as the officers were dismissed by a police tribunal as a result of the trafficking allegations. They are now seeking to appeal that decision.
