Cops ignored violent outbreak in cell after prisoner was placed with mentally ill inmates

A witness testifying in the Mario Deane case says the cops on trial ignored calls for help when violence erupted after a new prisoner was placed in a cell with others of unsound mind on the day Deane was beaten.

The inmate, who was at the Barnett Street Police Station lock-up when Deane died, told the Westmoreland Circuit Court that the incident happened after the defendants, Corporal Elaine Stewart and Constables Juliana Clevon and Marlon Grant, put a new prisoner into a cell with several inmates of unsound mind.

According to the witness, the new prisoner, who he did not identify by name, was previously in a different cell before the defendants removed him to process his bail. However, a short while later, the defendants brought the prisoner back to the cell-block while accusing him of disrespecting them.

The witness further testified that the prisoner was placed in a cell shared by three mentally unsound inmates. Shortly after, the witness and his cell-mates heard sounds of fighting in the unsound inmates' cell, but when they tried to raise an alarm, the defendants rebuffed them.

The trial is currently still ongoing.

Stewart, Clevon, and Grant are charged with manslaughter and misconduct in a public office, arising from Deane's death on August 6, 2014, three days after he was beaten while in custody at the Barnett Street lock-up for possession of a ganja spliff.

Stewart is also charged with perverting the course of justice, under allegations that she ordered the cleaning of the cell where Deane was beaten, prior to the arrival of investigators from the Independent Commission of Investigations.

- Christopher Thomas

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