On February twenty sixth, 2008 a team of special constables from the Belize City Council descended on Archie Lee’s Restaurant and Convenience Store on Central American Boulevard. The story was that the well known businessman had been operating without a valid liquor license. When the operation was over, the team of special constables left with at least two truckloads of bottles of liquor and beer. One of the officers also claimed that Archie Lee obstructed him from carrying out his duties. So Archie Lee and his wife Winnie Lee were both slapped with four charges. Archie Lee was additionally charged for the common assault on a special constable. For seven months Lee has been claiming his innocence, insisting that he did have a valid license. And today he was vindicated.
This morning Archie and Winnie Lee were back in the court and by the time it was all over the couple was cleared of all charges. Two weeks ago the case went to trial. Five witnesses took the stand to declare that Archie and Winnie Lee were operating illegally without a license. But according to their attorney Dickie Bradley the witnesses testimony did not hold up in court when an official from the intoxicating liquor licensing board testified that on the day of the raid Archie and Winnie Lee’s establishments were duly and lawfully licensed.
But while it has been proven that the Lee’s did have valid licenses to operate and sell liquor and beer was Archie Lee guilty of common assault? According to Bradley the court has been unable to set a trial date and there have been several adjournments because the complainant, Special Constable Andy Hamilton has not yet made an appearance. So with that, the couple was cleared of all five charges and 7NEWS was waiting outside the municipal court when they walked out of courtroom number two with their attorney. Bradley says they will see what can now be done for the Lee’s to be compensated for the two truckloads of liquor and beer that were confiscated from their establishments.
Richard “Dickie” Bradley, Attorney for Archie Lee
“Four of those charges had to do with offering for sale alcohol for which there was no license to do so and exposing and selling alcohol for which there was no license at the two establishments, the restaurant and the convenience
store and the fifth charge is a charge that Mr. Archie Lee himself obstructed one of the special constables Andy Hamilton who had brought eleven previous charges over the past nine months against Mr. Lee. He claims Mr. Lee held his shirt when he was going into Mr. Lee’s section where he keeps the cash register and the money and so he brought a charge of obstruction.
Because of the testimony of that official from the Belize City Council and because Mr. Archie Lee and Winnie Lee produced a duly certified official original copy of their liquor license, not to waste the court’s time today, the other two charges that were selling in the convenience store without a license were dismissed. The charge that Mr. Lee personally obstructed special constable Hamilton in the executions of his duties cannot stand because Mr. Hamilton or nobody from the City Council’s Liquor Licensing Unit had any right to go and remove anything. It is unlawful, he had a license. If I have a license, why are you in my store. Just come and see if I am licensed or not. All day they were out there removing his liquor, spoiling up his liquor, giving him and his establishment a bad name, and now that we’ve come to court Jackie, they don’t even present themselves.
Officer Hamilton brought eleven previous summons on Mr. Archie Lee and myself and his wife have been coming to these courts on eleven separate occasions. Every single one he has won them. They brought a charge against him that one minute after twelve o’clock, they saw somebody taking a beer off the shelf. They came to court, they didn’t have the beer, they didn’t have the person and so it is this man has been embarrassed, humiliated, dragged into these courts by these persons and every time it is special constable Hamilton. Now he is not here when he is the person saying Mr. Archie Lee held him, grabbed me by shirt collar when I was going into a section. He has no right to go into Mr. Archie Lee’s cash register section and he is not even here to tell the court. And in any event he can’t tell the count anything because Archie Lee had a license that afternoon.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
So you believe it is all over for Archie Lee now or you expect you’ll be coming back to court?
Archie Lee, Cleared
“I don’t know what is the next step they are going to do but only thing I say, if you don’t sleep early in the night, tonight at quarter past twelve you send your camera in front of my convenience store and you look at what they do. Every month whenever I change the calendar, the first thing I do is I circle which day I have to go to court.”
Richard “Dickie” Bradley,
“We made a submission that in fact all the liquor that was removed from the store has to be returned by law. The problem with that is that they admitted in court that they opened a lot of these things in order to remove samples in order for the law to say it is indeed alcohol. It was never proven in court but they have admitted opening a lot of those liquors and it is a known fact that when you remove beer and stout from off ice and leave it in a hot place for a while, you can’t go and sell the public. So it seems there will have to be compensation for Mr. Lee for what has happened. He has a list of everything that was taken. He has to tabulate it and probably end up going to the Supreme Court or something like that. Two pickup worth of liquor is quite expensive. “
Archie Lee told 7NEWS that he believes he is being personally targeted and that it is all political.
