But at the end of the day, it was only Brandon Tillett, who faced criminal charges, those being assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, and wounding.
The GSU is claiming that Tillett assaulted their officer, Detective Constable Abner Itza, in the scuffle at Ottley's house.
He was arraigned before Magistrate Dale Cayetano who granted him bail of $2,000, which he was able to meet.
This evening, Tillett, his attorney, and his friend Ottley all granted us an interview, where they explain their version of the events:
Brandon "BT" Tillett - Claims Brutality from GSU
"I went to my house and tried to get two DVD's to go inside and relax. When I went in there my family was in there dressed to go to court and I heard the man said GSU. The men started to bang on the door and told me to open the door and I did - then as I opened the door the police told me to put my hand up and told me to put it behind my head.
When I did that, two or three more ran in and as one of them got in he just started to beat me up, punched me in my chest and mouth. I asked him why he was doing that and he started to talk threatening and I really didn't pay it attention then two men came and started to beat me too. I just started to try and put down my hand and tried to push them off and told to hold it down. Same time they were beating my family on the ground and when they were finished they took me outside and told me to go back in the house and they wanted to take me in the room and I pushed and told them I wouldn't go into to any room so I managed to walk out in the yard through the hall. The landlord was upstairs and when they saw him, they kind of cooled down and one of them told me they would handcuff me. When they handcuffed me, they put me on the ground and they started stamping me on my head, scraped up my face. When I looked one of the officer was bleeding and the man asked me 'what did you do to my officer?' I didn't do him anything, I didn't even throw my hand I was just trying to push them off and because they were beating me they hurt their own officer. The man that got hit didn't even touch me, and should have been the one that was aggressive because his face was bleeding just like mine."
Bryan Neal - Attorney for Brandon BT Tillett
"Today I spoke with an officer at the Internal Affairs - we intend to take that up internally with the police. As well as I have advised my client to make a report to the police and we are calling to Mr. Vidal - the head of the GSU to ensure that the officers who are responsible for his injuries (which are extensive) to be brought to justice and be charged and faced to court. What I find ironic about this situation is that he suffered most of the injuries and he ended up being charged with a crime. So we are calling on the authorities to arrest this situation and to make sure that these officers are brought to justice."
Jermaine Ottley - Claims Brutality from GSU
"I went to the police at the Internal Affairs and reported it to them and I came to the media and got my form and I will go further with it."
Daniel Ortiz
"You have a designation that the GSU has given you. They believe that you're a member of the George Street gang."
Brandon Tillett
"I was born and I grew through there and those people are my relative, I don't know about any gang. There isn't any gang here, do you see any gang here that would take Police brutality and nobody does anything about it? People are just trying to live because they have love for one another and they have people that love them too."
Jermaine Ottley
"I was born and raised around there so they must have put me in that bracket and say that I'm from George Street but I've never committed any violent crime or have I hang around George Street or anything like that. I don't know why they are trying to label me and trying to do me that like they want to kill me. I'm not a violent person, I don't do anything out of the way."
Bryan Neal
"Whether or not he is suspected of being a member of a gang gives no police officer the right to abuse any Belizean and violate their constitutional rights. If they are suspected being members of gangs - we have laws that deal with those types of things and they can prosecute them. But to just walk into someone's house and just beat them like an animal - it is not tolerable in Belize, I am sorry."
Brandon Tillett will have to return to court on September 18, 2013.
This evening, 7News contacted the head of the GSU, ASP Marco Vidal, who told us that there was no brutality in relation to Tillett and Ottley. Acccording to him, Ottley is a reputed drug peddler operating on Allenby Street, and the officers were simply conducting an operation. Vidal told us that when the officers attempted to enter Ottley's house, they met resistance from both men, and Ottley took something believed to be drugs, and he ran to the bathroom, and flushed it down. He also noted that his officer, Itza was assaulted by Tillett.
And in relation to the Kraal Road complaints from Robinson and Gibson, he told us that these men were searched as per normal, when dealing with reputed drug peddlers who use their bodies to hide drugs.
According to Vidal, Gibson has been charged in the past for drugs, which were discovered in the groin area, and he also added that Robinson is a reputed drug peddler from Kraal Road. And in relation to the allegation of conducted the strip search in front of minors, he said that this never happened, and that this search was done in an enclosed area.
