By Breaking Belize News Staff: A 35-year-old woman who is seven months pregnant was remanded to the Belize Central Prison on Tuesday after an outstanding court fine prevented her from taking up bail on a charge of possession of utensils used for smoking a controlled drug.
Leeanna Monique Samuels, a self-employed cosmetologist of Banak Street, Belize City, appeared unrepresented before a Magistrate in Court #5 after police allegedly found a silver pipe during a search on Tigris Street earlier Tuesday.
Police allege that around 10:30 a.m., officers conducting searches approached a room where Samuels was seated on a plastic chair. Police say she was holding a silver pipe in her right hand and dropped it to the floor after being informed that a search would be conducted.
The pipe, measuring about 3¼ inches, was later described by police as having been made or adapted for smoking crack cocaine or another controlled drug.
Samuels initially pleaded guilty, but when the facts were read to her, she disputed the police account. She told the court that the pipe was not found in her hand, but was beneath the chair, and that something fell when she stood up before police claimed it belonged to her.
Because her explanation amounted to a possible defence and conflicted with the prosecution’s facts, the Magistrate declined to accept the guilty plea and entered an equivocal plea of not guilty on her behalf.
Samuels was offered bail in the sum of $400 with one surety, but was required to first settle an outstanding $155 fine dating back to August 2025.
Unable to pay the old fine, a warrant was prepared for Samuels to serve the default prison term, and she was escorted to the Belize Central Prison late Tuesday evening.
Her next court appearance on the crack pipe charge is scheduled for November 30, 2026.
The post Seven-months pregnant in jail for a crack pipe: Woman remanded after old $155 fine blocks her bail appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
By Breaking Belize News Staff: A 35-year-old woman who is seven months pregnant was remanded to the Belize Central Prison on Tuesday after an outstanding court fine prevented her from taking up bail on a charge of possession of utensils used for smoking a controlled drug. Leeanna Monique Samuels, a self-employed cosmetologist of Banak Street,
The post Seven-months pregnant in jail for a crack pipe: Woman remanded after old $155 fine blocks her bail appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
