AI Concerns Over Video Authenticity Lead to Dismissal of Doctor’s Noxious Drug Charge

Nicaraguan Dr Carlos Saborio Coze stepped out of the Chief Magistrates’ court on Monday November 17 free of all charges, after the single charge of Administering a noxious drug was dismissed. The dismal came after his attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley successfully presented a case to have the charge dismissed.  The charge stems from an incident that occurred sometime between the night of November 29 and the early morning of November 30, 2024.  Dr. Coze and a male coworker were at a restaurant on the north side of Belize City, where it was alleged that Coze ‘spiked’ his coworker’s drink with benzodiazepines, a drug commonly used to treat seizure, anxiety and other panic disorders.  In Court yesterday, Attorney Bradley cited insufficient evidence and indicated that the video being used as a key part of the prosecution’s case was not the original video of the night’s incident.  With the original not being able to be produced and the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI)in doctoring videos, the court ruled that the video could not be used as evidence in the case as its authenticity could not be guaranteed.  Bradley also cited several other factors to defend his claim of insufficient evidence.

Richard “Dickie” Bradley, Attorney: “The issue we raised, among others, was that the Chief Magistrate in her decision is that all exhibits must be protected. If you say you find a firearm at the scene of a crime and you describe the firearm and a firearm is handed over and is sealed and when you come to court it’s a different firearm that is a very serious matter. A court will look askance on such an information. In this case there was no firearm meaning there is no original video tape to confirm with what was allegedly a copy of a tape. In law this is very serious. As you may know there was a video of me going viral with a young lady hugging me up and so on and so forth, you laugh, which led other persons to send to me videos of me hugging them up and they live in Los Angeles but they’re showing me that the technology has reached a stage where individuals can photoshop pictures, they can change your face onto another much less if you don’t have the original of a tape. At our concern, in our submission there is no original of the video tape. You can’t let a person have a copy and you can’t confirm if that is the copy of the original. Worse you can’t confirm if those images were protected. Who had it, it passed form who to whom, who had it ? So that was a matter of concern for the Chief Magistrate who she has years of experience as a trial magistrate. There was nothing, it could have been made any time. So the legal issues did not require that a court of law allow for the trial to continue. What was in front of the court was if I could borrow the now famous words, it was less than nothing.”

Upon the allegations made, Dr Coze was terminated from the Karl Huesner Memorial Hospital and his license to practice had been revoked after the allegations had been made a little less than a year ago.