Last week you saw 61 year old Belizean American Tourist Woodrow Gabourel on this newscast complaining that police had roughed him up, robbed him and then brought him up on some bogus charges. Gabourel who was visiting with family told us he’d stay as long as he had to prove his innocence.
Luckily, he didn’t have to stay long. Today he was acquitted of all four offences when he appeared in the number three Magistrate’s Court. He was found not guilty of assaulting a police officer, harm, resisting arrest and loitering.
Magistrate Kathleen Lewis found that he had given police a reasonable explanation as to why he was on Yarborough Bridge around 7:00 am on Saturday March 20th, and the police should have listened to what he had to say. Constable Mark Martinez alleged that Gabourel had bucked him. Sergeant Diane Martinez testified that Gabourel slapped Martinez’s hand away when the officer approached him.
The Magistrate, however said the only thing the court had to consider was whether Gabourel was loitering on the bridge he established to the court that he was not, so that was the end of it.
