Back in August, it was huge news when the police department charged Gustavo Carrillo, the Operations Manager of the Port of Big Creek along with 5 crew members who were connected to the St. James Tug incident in the south. That's the vessel that allegedly violated the State of Emergency Protocols back on July 25, when Belize borders were closed to keep out the coronavirus that has now caused an ongoing public health crisis.
Police charged Carillo, Customers Officer Deon Castillo, Immigration Officer Bobby Flowers, Port Authority Officer Keyron Young under the state of emergency regulations for granting the vessel clearance to travel when it ought not to have done so. Later on, police charged also the vessel's crew: Elvis Linarez, Raymond Dawson, Ryan Godoy, Dane Emanuel, and Herbert Godoy, for the alleged state of emergency violations.
You'll remember that vessel which went to Roatan, Honduras for cargo shipping. The persons charged were taking the view that shipping was one of the services that were not illegal under the State of Emergency, and that they were carefully following the law for this mission. Unfortunately, the crew came back with COVID-19 infections, and then, their legal troubles began.
Well, the news tonight is that all accused persons have been freed of these charges. When all the defendants appeared before Magistrate Morrison in Independence this morning, the prosecutor for the case informed the court that police were withdrawing all charges. That meant that they were all allowed to leave court free. Hector Guerra, the attorney for Gustavo Carrillo and the 5 crew members, told us via telephone that in his opinion the charges were doomed to fail because, according to his research, the state of emergency regulations were quote, "not validly promulgated", end quote.
We expect charges against the law enforcement personnel will also be dropped.
