Police could not prove before the town Magistrate that the trio had stolen a significant amount of money from Atlantic Bank by using credit card fraud back in January 2018. Well tonight, the news is that they've fought criminal charges brought against them in Orange Walk, and they've been acquitted of those as well.

Police had arrested and charged Belen Hernandez with 2 counts of theft and Leonel Peralta Rodriguez with 9 counts of theft, which they allegedly committed against Atlantic Bank in Orange Walk. Their trial took place before Senior Magistrate Patricia Arana, and the prosecution called 3 witnesses to testify, 2 employees of Atlantic Bank, and Inspector Wilfredo Ferrufino, the arresting officer.

After the court heard their testimony against Hernandez and Rodriguez, Leslie Hamilton, the attorney for the accused made a no-case submission before the Magistrate last week Tuesday. After considering the submission for over a week, Magistrate Arana returned to court today, upheld the submission, and dismissed the charges against both accused.

Court reports say that the prosecution witnesses testified in court that the theft of the bank's money happened on January 18th, 2019, however, the charges had the wrong date of January 19th, 2018 on them.

This is now the 3rd time that criminal charges related to the theft of the bank's money have been dismissed against these defendants. You'll remember that in April 2018, the first dismissal happened in Corozal after police failed to provide disclosure to the defendants within the required time. Then, they beat those charges again in January of this year, and now, today's acquittal.