Charges of extortion against a police officer were dismissed today when the complainant failed to appear in court.
Twenty five year old police constable Andre Almendarez, was charged with extorting One hundred U.S. dollars from 27 year old Salvadoran national Roberto Ponce at a police checkpoint.
Justice Adolph Lucas dismissed the case after Ponce was a no show in court today. Ponce reported the incident occurred around 4:45 P.M. on January 12, 2009, at the police checkpoint at mile 4 on the Western Highway. He said he was stopped at the checkpoint and was asked if he had insurance and when he could not produce any, the constable asked him for One Hundred Fifty dollars.
Ponce said he told the constable he only had $7.00, but the constable saw a One Hundred U.S. currency note in his wallet which he demanded from him.
He said he gave the constable the One Hundred U.S. note, but later filed an incident report at the Belmopan Police station. As a result, Almendarez was detained and charged. Senior Crown Counsel Yohhanseh Cave represented the prosecution, whilst Ponce was not represented by an attorney.
And in a follow up to a story we first aired in March, one of two men charged with the robbery and wounding of 56 year old free lance reporter, Roy Davis was found guilty of the charges today in the number 8 Magistrate's court.
Davis was robbed at gunpoint on March 27th of this year.
Lawrence Dawson was fined Five Thousand dollars for robbery, and One Thousand dollars for wounding. Charges against a second man, 28 year old Michael "Popeye" Forman were dropped last week.
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