It is the third politician to be charged with criminal offences by the U.D.P. government in this term. But on Thursday, it will be the first time in history that a serving Mayor, a female at that, will be paraded to the Queen Street Police Station to be processed and taken to court to hear her charges. But Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers will not be the only one facing the music. Three senior members of her finance team will also be arraigned on criminal charges. All heads of the Finance Department, including the City Administrator, Dr. Kiran Vanjani, along with Finance Director, Dwain Davis and his Assistant Director, Kiran Bhudrani are due in court. The slew of charges is yet to be confirmed and Mayor Moya Flowers’ battery of attorneys has stepped up the ante in her defense. On Tuesday Hubert Elrington had choice words about the prime minister and today Attorney Michael Peyrefitte matter-of-factly told News Five what he expects in the next twenty-four hours.

Michael Peyrefitte, Lead Defense Attorney, Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers
“My most important concern is the procedure when we go to meet Mr. Segura at the Queen Street Police Station tomorrow morning at nine-thirty. We have been working out the logistics as to, we’re gonna take the mayor and other people there and meet with Mr. Segura and he is going to do the charge and everything that comes with that. He and I have not yet discussed and he doesn’t have to disclose to me at this point what the charges will be so I don’t know what the charges are. He has not told me how many charges there are. All he told me was that there are charges for the mayor and so he would appreciate it if I would bring the Mayor there tomorrow morning, nine-thirty. We won’t know what the situation is until we actually see the charge and we have the charge or charges in our hands. So the defense will be based on the charge itself and whatever evidence the Crown brings to support those charges. I don’t want to speculate; like I said, I don’t even know. I will have a better idea of it when I get the charge sheet and then later on down the road, I get the evidence to supposedly support the charge. But we have to look at all of that first. It may very well be that these charges have nothing to do with under-depositing. It may very well be that they have everything to do with under-depositing. We don’t know yet so we have to wait until we get the charges and we get the evidence because we can speculate on invoices and receipts but what if when we go to court, those are not disclosed? Those would be of no holding so it doesn’t make any sense to speculate on them. The most important thing right now is for the mayor to know that she will be charged. She will be technically arrested, charged, taken over to court and she will be read charges. I don’t know if some of them will be indictable, I don’t know if some of them will be summary. I don’t know yet. But the number one thing is to get her to the police station tomorrow morning at nine-thirty, go with her to court and to, as quickly as possible, be done with court.”

Mayor Issues Press Statement

And tonight finally we have some comment from the Mayor herself who issued a press statement today. It is a lengthy statement –three whole pages, but the central points are first, that no money is missing, the charges are trumped up, and that the attack on her is from the Minister of Finance – Prime Minister Dean Barrow and the leadership of her own party who does not have the support of the party’s rank and file. The release – which is almost one-thousand five-hundred words long – does not once use the term “under-deposits.”

It does however say that all those documents presented by the Mayor to the media on July 14th comprise quotations and estimates, invoices, post-it notes, requisition forms, claim forms and memos with receipts. The release explains that the special auditor refused to confirm those documents as legitimate – which, “is regrettable, as the Finance Department has confirmed that those documents were what they made payments on.”

So that’s it, the proof of how public funds were disbursed in cash is in the form of and we quote, again, “estimates, invoices, post-it notes, requisition forms, claim forms and memos with receipts.”

The release also deals at length with the amended city council regulations which require the council to get permission form the financial controller to make payments greater than fifty dollars. When it was passed, we called it the managing Mayor Moya bill because it was clearly an attempt by central government to reign in what they felt was a rogue mayor.

Well Mayor Moya’s release says that the law, “is both impractical and a slap in the face of a duly elected City Council. The release says that because the mayor resisted this and stood up to the Minister of Finance, “this has caused (him) to declare war on her...” On this subject it concludes that “there has been a public trial of the Mayor and the Belize City Council by rumour and innuendos led by the Minister of Finance and his minion Patrick Tillett.” Thereafter it proceeds to quote scripture.

Serious business and previews of what promises to be a very public war between Moya and the Minister of Finance. The real fireworks begin tomorrow and of course, 7News will be there.

Mayor Moya Retains Attorney Michael Peyrefitte

And the man accompanying Moya to court will be attorney Michael Peyrefitte. Peyrefitte has previously defended at least one high profile former public official accused of mismanagement of public funds and that’s Ralph Fonseca. But Fonseca was charged after leaving government in the time of a government led by his political opponents; Moya is being charged as the sitting UDP Mayor under a UDP government. It’s a first, but today when we spoke to Peyrefitte, he was nonplussed; he said he does not know what the charge is but is ready for whatever.

Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney for Zenaida Moya
“I don’t want to presuppose what the charges will be because I don’t know but I approach every case soberly and without emotion and I would just simply look at what the charges are. If they are not supported by the evidence, if they are not good charges, I will make my submissions.”

Jules Vasquez,
“Have you investigated an amendment to the Belize City Council Act in so far as what we at Channel 7 called the Managing Mayor Moya Bill which sought to change the powers of oversight by the Minister of Finance? Have you investigated that because as we understand she is being charged for failure to comply with those regulations?”

Michael Peyrefitte,
“Yes I have studied the regulations but like I said I don’t know what the charges are. The regulations are very clear and we will have to see if she is charged pursuant to those regulations whether or not there is enough evidence to support the charge. But like I said I have no idea of what the charges are.

I know usually when charges are made of this nature, sometimes the people who are charging run the risk of putting emotion into it and naturally sometimes they make the mistake of putting the most entertaining charge instead of putting the proper charge. I am not saying that is going to be done in this case. I am saying that whatever charge they put, that is what we’ll be looking at and for their sake, they better have the evidence to back up that particular charge.”

Jules Vasquez,
“You ran for the UDP as a general election candidate in the last election. Are you surprised or dismayed as may be the case that under a UDP government a UDP Mayor is being charged for mismanagement of public funds?”

Michael Peyrefitte,
“Well in this life Jules very little surprises me anymore but I am not that politically sophisticated as you may be. I am a lowly little lawyer in the corner. I don’t look at it politically in anyway. That is not my job. I am sure that both sides will have their own political machines going but my job is strictly is to look at the legal situation and the Mayor has not asked me to do political work for her. She has asked me to represent her if indeed she is charged criminally with certain offenses under the law. So that is where my focus is and I haven’t allowed myself to delve into the other area that may be surrounding the situation.”

And while Mayor Moya will be charged in the Magistrate’s Court, her case may already be going to the Supreme Court. That is because yesterday Moya - through her other attorney Hubert Elrington - filed a suit for constitutional redress in the Supreme Court. They are asking the court to declare the changes to the City Council Act last year unconstitutional – and in breach of the mayor and her council’s autonomy as an independently elected body.

Hubert Elrington, Attorney for Zenaida Moya
“The Mayor is not saying that she is not responsible. She is saying just the opposite, ‘I am the Mayor and it is my responsibility and the councillors’ responsibility to look after the affairs of the Belize City Council. It is not the responsibility of Mr. Patrick Tillett or the Minister of Finance. If Mr. Tillett is now in charge of City Council we want to know how. Is it the constitution of Belize that says he can be there? Is it the Prime Minister that has the power or the Minister of Local Government or is it the people of Belize? Who is in charge? There is a question of who runs City Council, who is in charge. What form of government? Are we going to have a democratic system and adhere to it or are we going to after the election say the democratic system doesn’t matter, the election doesn’t really matter, Mr. Tillett will run things and tell the Mayor what to do.”

But not so fast says the City Council. In a late evening press release signed by Deputy Mayor Dion Leslie – the council says that the constitutional motion filed by Mayor Moya is only behalf of her and not the council. According to the release, “the Belize City Council has held no meeting discussing or approving the commencement of this case.” It continues that, “the court action has been brought by Mrs. Moya-Flowers in her personal capacity and without any approval, endorsement, or participation from the Belize City Council.” The resolution ends by supporting the imposition of central government’s financial controller.

Internecine warfare / political cannibalism underway at the United
Democratic Party Government in Belize:

The public fight between Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers and Prime Minister
Dean Barrow will go before the U.D.P. Party Council this Saturday
morning. Early reports are that the PM is seething and is prepared to
watch her burn over the remarks directed to at him following her court
appearance on Thursday. So what happens next for her? Well, sources
close to the Mayor say that a move is afoot to rope her in and that
her expulsion from the party is on the table. The mayor is on record
saying that nothing has changed, that she is still a U.D.P. And by all
accounts no one can force her to leave City Hall.

She would only have to give up office if she is convicted and sent to
prison for the criminal charges of uttering a false document or
violations to the City Council Regulations Act. Until that happens and
if that happens, she can’t be suspended. The thing is that she is
technically on maternity leave and by law she is required to take that
leave. The U.D.P. is divided over this issue but the Mayor has said
she is elected and has the support of the rank and file. Today she was
back at the Council. The caucus meeting scheduled to deal with a debt
to the Belize Maintenance Limited never happened. But what we’ve been
able to find out from sources at City Hall is that though the deputy
mayor is running city hall, the embattled Mayor was individually
calling councilors into her office and several left the building. The
council wrote a release on Wednesday indicating that they were in full
support of the Prime Minister’s decision to amend the law that placed
a financial controller at city hall. She can for sure only count on
the support of one councilor, Wayne Usher.

Crime Wave Out of Control in Belize - Tropic Air Manager Murdered in
Home Invasion in Caye Caulker

Seventy-five murders have been recorded so far for this year, that’s
statistically higher than the same period last year. The two most
recent cold blooded homicides were added to the long list today and
the victims are both women. In Caye Caulker, a fifty-one year old
enterprising manager was found dead last night in a most gruesome way;
her throat was slit. News Five’s Delahnie Bain reports from La Isla
Carinosa.

Delahnie Bain, Reporting
The residents of Caye Caulker are reeling over the senseless murder of
one of their own Lorleen Young, a manager of Tropic Air for Caye
Caulker.

Delahnie Bain
“By all accounts, Young was well known and loved at her home, her job
and by the community in general. But when the Tropic Air employee
returned from work on Thursday evening, she was followed by an
unwanted guest and what started as a home invasion ended with a brutal
homicide.”

Charles Young Sr., Husband of Deceased
“When I went there in the bathroom and I turned on the light I saw my
wife on the floor lying in a pool of blood. When I check her, and
shake her up she was still warm and I hold one of her hands and check
for a pulse and she still had a little pulse. And then I tried to turn
her over to try to see if I could revive her back. Probably I thought
maybe she slip and hit her head on something. And when I turned her
over and I see underneath her neck she had a big hole underneath her
neck and that’s where all the blood was coming out from.”

Amado Badillo, Regional Manager, Tropic Air
“I think it was like about six-forty-five I got the first phone call
telling me that something had happened to her but the details were
very sketchy. So I picked up my phone and tried making telephone calls
and I called just about everybody—family members that I had numbers
for and finally one family member confirmed that yes, it wasn’t an
accident that she was involved in, it was actually a home invasion,
robbery and eventually a murder.”

Caye Caulker police say the incident has left the community shaken,
but the investigations are underway and they have two persons of
interest being questioned.

U.D.P. Elder Statesman, former Minister and attorney condemns Barrow
Administration:

Hubert Elrington, Attorney for Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers

“The twenty-two charges of uttering, the charges are not even known to
law, they don’t even exist in law. It shows you the malicious and
worthless nature of the people that are setting up this. We are going
to be moving to have all of these charges in relation to uttering
thrown out on the ground that they are not known to law. They are
inventing something. This is an invention and I have ten times more
experience than any of them in the criminal courts, at least ten
times; from Barrow right down.”

Marion Ali
“The allegations were that Zenaida thief quarter million,
under-deposit, di money missing.”

Hubert Elrington

“Yes, I had expected them to put up or shut up. Today they come with
some nonsense wasting the people time, disrespecting the country,
disrespecting the mayor, making the country look really, really bad.
We call this political cannibalism. In 2009 people are involving
themselves in political cannibalism to make a point that I am more
powerful than you or you are less powerful than me and all these
stupid games that they are playing, you understand? That’s why the
country is in a mess. Look at the killings, look at the amount of
killings. You don’t even see Perdomo.

So we are going to be taking the appropriate steps and we are going to
be taking the appropriate action and the mayor and the city manager
and the rest of them will be properly advised. They will not make any
legal misstep because we think that what is happening here is a
massive abuse of power on the part of the government. It’s a massive
and shameful, disgraceful abuse of the judicial system on the part of
the government of Belize and we are going to show that we are correct
in making that assessment.

It shows you the malicious and evil nature of some people and I have
said that Esquivel faction, Net Vasquez—and I know what I am talking
about. It’s Net Vasquez, it’s Esquivel and it’s Barrow. Those are the
people that undermined and destroyed the United Democratic Party and
the dream of Goldson cannot be realized. The dream of people like
myself and Aikman cannot be realized because they are penny pinchers,
they have no respect for the little man and they think they understand
finances and the only man that really understand finance in that group
was the Castillo who they were working for or who try and help them
out. You know SanCas? That was the man with the brain.”

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