UDP Deputy Chairman Alberto August to Face Court on Aggravated Assault Charge

Deputy Chairman of the United Democratic Party, 62-year-old, Alberto Orlando August is expected to be arraigned in the Magistrate’s Court on Monday, September 9.  His arraignment will be for a charge of aggravated assault brought against him by an employee of the Elections and Boundaries Department in San Ignacio Town, Cayo District.  With magistrates currently engaged in a national conference, August’s arraignment has been delayed but a Justice of the Peace was able to grant him bail when he was arrested on Wednesday, August 28.  The incident reportedly happened on Monday, August 26, just after four o’clock, at the Elections and Boundaries office on Bullet Tree Road.  According to the complainant, August entered the office along with Omar Figueroa, Berns Mendez and Juan Polanco.  August then became boisterous asking her (the employee) if she was the one who was hired by Minister Michel Chebat.  The employee refused to respond to August and that was when he began taking photos of her.  The employee told him to stop, but August persisted. When the woman threatened to sue August, he reportedly began uttering insulting words at her.  The group then left the office.  The matter comes at a time when the government recently strengthened the penalties for uttering threats and insulting words, under the Summary Jurisdiction Offences Act.  According to the Bill, ‘A person who uses any threatening, abusive, profane, obscene, indecent or insulting words or behavior, whether calculated to lead to a breach of the peace or not, such several offences being committed in a street, or public place, or in a private enclosure or ground, whether directly or within hearing of a public officer in the course of duty; commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for three years.’  End of quote.  In this incident, it was a public officer in the course of her duties. The Act, however, does protect other professionals ranging from police officers to media practitioners and from elected officials to teachers, in the course of their duties.