Tonight, a police officer is a free woman after she was exonerated in court. Back in 2022, Stephanie Patten Cima along with three other men were arraigned on a slew of gun and drug related charges after police conducted a raid inside a home in Orange Walk. During the raid, the cops found unlicensed guns, ammunition, bullet proof vests, old GSU uniforms, and even a small amount of crack cocaine.
But after three years, three of those four persons were set free. Today when we spoke with Cima's attorney, Richard "Dickie" Bradley, he explained that the prosecution did not have sufficient evidence to tie them to the stash of weapons. He told us that throughout the trial, one of the men, Alden Lara, took the rap.
And while Cima was originally thought of to be the mastermind because it was initially reported that the home in Orange Walk was hers, Bradley said that could not be proven. He spoke to us after the proceedings.
Richard "Dickie" Bradley, Attorney for Stephanie Cima
"A few days ago, the prosecution arrested their case. They felt they had presented sufficient evidence. The Chief Magistrate who was a master's degree in law, who should rarely be a judge in the Supreme Court, along with other Belizeans who are experienced, trained. Some of the people who are judges in our court. I know Jules does not want me to say this thing, but some of the people who are judges in our court were not even magistrates, no experience."
"So today the Chief Magistrate set aside to give a decision, having heard both myself and the prosecutor. And she reviewed the evidence and among her many important observations is that when one of the accused persons keeps saying in court, before she started her case, all the statements from the police have that he, at the house when they were searching, at the police station, this man is saying that it's me that brought the things them, she doesn't know, the next one doesn't know, you don't make people know you have those lots of guns them. Guns are big money, gun people will kill you to get one gun what you think about several? So he kept saying that. So during the trial, he kept insisting that I am the person that is guilty."
"The magistrate then did what is now the law, offered through his attorney to give an indication that if he maintains his guilty plea, this is what will happen. He will go to jail for so much time for this. What the Chief Magistrate is saying today is that throughout the course of this matter, a person is pleading guilty. The court ended up many months afterwards during the trial to accept the guilty plea. Then you need to shift your focus to see how you can link the other accused persons with two very, very important matters. This is very important that people understand. I was making a comparison, but you know of a mischievous man. And I was saying what if somebody go knock off somebody else girl and then they are there at the house? How are they guilty if the brother has drugs in a next room? What do they have to do with it?"
"So what I'm trying to say is this, that when you reach that state where somebody has pled guilty, the guilty plea has been accepted. They have been sentenced to jail. You need to now focus attention on the other accused because you need to show something more now, you need to show. Did he bring that in to the house during the day? Did he bring it in at night? Did he bring it along with any other, three other persons? Were they present when he brought it? Who got a key and control the house? Who were the thing mean? We were saying that the very same time the police came, it was just before that in dark. Nobody was going to walk around in the open with big gun and lot of ammunition. So those are the things that were lacking in terms of evidence to the Chief Magistrate to help her to decide you all know that they bring gun in that house. Today, my client has been exonerated, has had the other two other persons who just missed the young man from Mexico that there is not sufficient evidence. Those are the words she used because she's using legal terms when a Magistrate is dismissing a charge against people. There just was not sufficient evidence to link Miss Stephanie with what was found in the house. It would have to have been her house. It would have to have been she was renting that house. She was responsible for it on behalf of somebody. There have to be some link. You can't just find me on a house or one yard where there are other persons and you can't show that I know what is there. If you can't show it, you can't show it."
The other two men, Joshua Hall and Misael Varela also walked free. Lara pled guilty and is currently serving his time in prison.
