Judge upset with delays in charging suspects

Senior Parish Judge Sanchia Burrell said she is taking note of possible constitutional breaches being committed by police officers, who hold Corporate Area residents in custody for lengthy periods before placing them before the courts.

"I don't know if the police are not aware of the constitutional rights being breached or they just don't care. I urge the private bar to engage the police in that. I see it happen many times here, where men are in custody for over a month before they are brought before the court," the judge reasoned.

Her comments came after defence counsel Kemoy McEkron cited his recent visit to the Duhaney Park Police Station, where several men said they were being held without knowledge of a court date.

"I went there to a client and there were many men, one of whom is the accused, Gary Brown, who was in custody for over a week but with no court date. I don't know if this is a new practice by the police but what they tell me is that they submit the files to the registry at Hunts Bay [Police Station] and they cannot say to the accused when they will be brought to court," McEkron told the judge.

Brown is before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court for allegedly obtaining money by means of false pretence. Allegations state that on July 25, Brown informed the complainant that he was selling portable toilets that were on auction at the Kingston Wharves. The complainant paid over $170,000 for 28 toilets but to date has neither received the items nor had his monies returned.

Prosecutors opposed bail as the investigator called Brown a flight risk. The investigator, who is attached to the Hunts Bay station, was not present in court.

"He worked last night, Your Honour," the prosecution liaison officer for the St Andrew South Police Division, in which Hunts Bay falls, told the judge.

"That has nothing to do with the accused, and quite frankly, me either. Let's see if he is a flight risk because I am offering him bail," the peeved senior judge said.

Brown was offered $250,000 bail with at least two sureties and a condition that he report to the police three times weekly. A subpoena was issued for the investigator, and full restitution is to be made at the next court date on December 12.

- T.T.