Another hearing at court which caught our interest was the continuing saga of Melonie Coye vs Arthur Saldivar.
You'll remember the famous story from 2014 where Melonie Coye sued Saldivar, accusing him of making off with a little over 900 thousand dollars of her family's money, which the Supreme Court ordered the Financial Intelligence Unit to return.
That was an unusual twist in the case, since Saldivar acted as her family's defense attorney from the original criminal trial against her and her father, Michael Coye, which ended in their conviction for money laundering in 2012. He stuck with them for 2 years and eventually, he convinced the judges to allow and appeal quashing their conviction and sentence, and setting Melonie free.
Saldivar and his former client settled the lawsuit out of court in January 2015, but at that time, the details were never shared as to why she dropped the case against him.
Well, we've done some checking, and we've found out that as part of the settlement both sides agreed that Saldivar would pay Coye 200 thousand dollars, presumably from the 900 she alleges he took.
We are told that Saldivar was making payments toward that amount, until he stopped. So, Coye and her attorneys sued Saldivar for breach of the agreement, and because he offered no defense, a default judgment for that 200 thousand plus interest was entered against him.
Again, there was hardly any progress to repayment on that new judgment, and so Justice Shona Griffith issued a judgment summons for him to personally give an account of himself. He showed up to court this morning with his attorney, and after some out-of-court talks, Coye's attorney, Iliana Swift, informed the judge that a way forward was charted.
Saldivar has agreed to pay the Coye family $1,000 monthly for the next 4 months, starting from May 4. After that, the case will go back before the judge for a revision of the terms of continued repayment of the entire debt.
After the very short hearing, we asked Saldivar to grant us an interview, which he did. Now, for most people, being in debt for a few hundred dollars is an agonizing dilemma. But not so for Arthur. Instead of addressing issue at hand, he dismissed that 200-thousand-dollar debt as something insignificant. And, in a surprising twist, Saldivar, chose to use the opportunity to pivot and announce his intention to run as a candidate in Belmopan.
Here's how that press encounter went:
Reporter
"The dispute between you and Ms. Coye as your former client has progressed to a situation where a judgement was entered against you for $200,000."
Arthur Saldivar, defendant
"All of that is behind us, that's a 4 year old situation. Politics is dirty in Belize and we try to dredge up things all the time, but that is something that is under the bridge, we're moving forward to bigger and better things. Do you notice the shoes I'm wearing? It's from an Ostrich who had its head in the sand. Do you see what happened to him for having his head in the sand? He was made into a boots for doing that. I have to ensure that our Belizean people get their head out of the sand. We won't deal with the past, we'll deal with the present and the future. I'm in Belmopan, back home and there's a reason why I'm back home. I heard the echo of a distant voice which came to me on the wings of the wind. Its time now for us to do business and get peoples work in Belmopan. Meet me on the campaign trail, forget about this, it's the past."
Reporter
"Are you saying..."
Arthur Saldivar, defendant
"I will see you in Belmopan, love you always and the people from Belmopan, I have to give my love and shout out to the Belmopan people. We will talk again, meet me at the campaign trail."
Later that morning, we did re-engage Saldivar on the real topic at hand. He told us that he did the right thing the wrong way, and he was punished for it. He claims that he has since mitigated the situation. We'll keep following up.
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