Call centre worker freed from DRMA charge

A call centre worker was yesterday freed of the charge of breaching the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA) when he appeared before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.

Michael Anderson pleaded guilty but provided an explanation. The court heard that at 9:15 p.m. on March 15, he was heading home after completing his shift at a Corporate Area call centre when he was charged with breaching curfew orders. Nightly curfews start at 8 p.m.

Anderson told the court that he had requested a letter from his employers as proof of his working hours on that particular day but was not provided with one. Parish Court Judge Lori-Ann Cole-Montague said that the letter would have been helpful. A representative of the company provided the judge with the information requested. Anderson was then admonished and discharged.

Meanwhile, eight other persons who appeared before the judge for breaching the DRMA were fined $60,000 each after pleading guilty. They are Jerel Brown, Natoya Clarke, Chevala Russell, Kimonie Edwards, Lloyd Jones, Reema Porter, Dashane Young and John Williams. They were seen at a bar drinking and listening to music at 10:15 p.m., more than two hours after the curfew began. Jones is also accused of breaching the Spirit Licence and the Noise Abatement acts. He comically pleaded not guilty to those charges.

"I was not playing music at the bar, but tru my foot sick, when everybody run weh gone a me one left. So the police seh she a guh charge me with everything. It was not my party; it was not me playing any music. It wasn't me," Jones said. Porter also pleaded not guilty to being armed with an offensive weapon. She said that she only had her son's paper scissors in her knapsack and had collected it to take in his school project the following day. Jones and Porter will return to court on June 14.