Woman Fined $3K for Facebook Post Ridiculing Police Officer

A 22-year-old Belize City cook was handed a non-custodial sentence for a serious cybercrime offense. Shantel Flowers pleaded guilty to using a computer system to post a false statement on Facebook intended to cause public ridicule. The post, which included two pictures of a police officer, accused him of being “high.” The officer, Rafael Tepaz, reported the post, saying it made him feel humiliated and embarrassed. Flowers admitted to making the post and claimed she did so because the officer had assaulted her first during a traffic stop. Magistrate Dennison Mannan noted that while the officer was not on trial, Flowers’s actions were not justified. The magistrate considered that it was Flowers’s first offense, and she saved the court time by pleading guilty. She was ordered to pay a fine of $3,005 by December 31 or face one year in prison.