Judge scolds cops for undue absences from court

WESTERN BUREAU:

A St James judge has issued a stern warning to police officers to change their approach to the matter of attendance at court, after she was left fuming on Thursday when one cop was seemingly unduly absent from his assigned case’s hearing.

Judge Natiesha Fairclough-Hylton was clearly disgruntled on being told that the investigator in the matter involving Oppley Ebanks, who is before the St James Parish Court for the January 14 murder of Santino Plummer, had sent a message through the clerk of the court asking to be excused as he had been on duty the night before.

“While it is that I do not require him [to be present], I do not appreciate how officers in St James are doing things. I notice that officers do not come, they have to be called by the Crown to find out where they are. Or they ... come and tell the court that they can’t be here for whatever reason. Or they have to leave because they have an appointment at ‘X’ time,” Fairclough-Hylton complained.

“They don’t even ask to be excused. They excuse themselves. And that is not something I will tolerate. I trust that the officers here will indicate to their fellow police officers that that is not something that the court will accept,” Fairclough-Hylton added.

TOUGH SANCTIONS

The issue of non-attendance at scheduled court sessions by police officers previously came up as a cause for concern in 2011, when the then

Police Commissioner Owen Ellington threatened tough sanctions for cops who failed to attend court hearings.

At that time, Ellington stated that if police personnel are unable to attend court, they should give notification ahead of the court date and provide reasons for their absence. He said that in cases where illness is the reason for absence, a medical certificate should be provided to the clerk of the court or to Crown Counsel before the day of the case.

Prior to that warning by Ellington, in August 2008 the Spanish Town Resident Magistrate’s Court issued a warrant for the arrest of a police constable who failed to attend court on six occasions for court hearings involving a man who he had prosecuted for a traffic offence in May that year.

On Thursday, Ebank’s attorney Jermaine Campbell successful applied for his client’s bail offer of $800,000 with two sureties to be reduced to $600,000.

“The circumstances in this case are that he [Ebanks] was a Good Samaritan coming to the aid of a woman who was being attacked …i t was his girlfriend who was being assaulted on the beach, and when he heard the cry for help, when he would have gone to her aid, he used a stone,” Campbell outlined, referencing reports that Ebanks used a stone to beat Plummer to death.

The court was also told that the post-mortem report is currently outstanding from the prosecution’s case file.

The case was subsequently set for mention on May 8, and Ebanks was remanded until that date.

According to the allegations, on January 14 at about 11:30 pm, Plummer went to a football field to conduct a business transaction. While there, an argument reportedly developed between him and a woman, in which Ebanks intervened.

The confrontation between the two men turned physical, during which Ebanks allegedly used a stone to strike Plummer. The police were summoned, and on their arrival, Plummer was seen lying face down in blood with a wound to the head.

Ebanks, who was seen running from the scene, was chased and held by the lawmen. He was taken into custody and formally charged after a question-and-answer session