ADAMS. says he appreciates the help

A group of Spanish Town businessmen have launched a defence fund for Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams and the five other cops who are facing murder charges for the controversial Crawle killings.

"We have opened an account at the Spanish Town Bank of Nova Scotia to help Superintendent Adams defray his legal costs," said fashion designer, Tyrone Messado.
Messado and night club owner, Winston Henry, head the group of a dozen businessmen who manage the fund.

Adams, the colourful and talkative tough cop who headed the now-disbanded controversial squad, the Crime Management Unit, was based in Spanish Town between 1996 and 2000, as head of the South St Catherine police.

"When Mr Adams was stationed in Spanish Town, he did a great job of bringing down crime and violence - especially the amount of shooting and killings," Messado said. "So we have seen it fit to give him our financial support as a demonstration of our appreciation for the great work he did in Spanish Town."
No cap has been placed on the fund.
The same would have been done for any other cop who had served the community as well as Adams had, Messado said.

Adams was transferred from St Catherine to head the East Kingston police before being promoted in 2001 and assigned, in the midst of a crime wave, to establish the CMU. Its mandate was to target dons, extortionists, carjackers and gangs.

But the CMU was involved in a series of controversial killings, the last, leading to its disbanding, being those in Crawle, Clarendon a year ago when four persons, including two women, were killed in what the police initially said was a gunfight between cops and criminals. Apart from the criticisms about the style of his policing, Adams has also personally been dogged by controversy for his statements about a raft of issues in Jamaica, ranging from the prevalence of crime to the management of the police force.

Residents of the community disputed the police's account of what happened at Crawle, claiming extra-judicial executions on the part of Adams and his men. Last month Adams, along with Devon Bernard, Latrid Gordon, Roderick Collier, Shane Lyons and Patrick Coke were each charged jointly with four counts of murder over the Crawle incident.
The prosecution accused them of planting evidence - specifically a spent shell - at the crime scene, saying they had conspired to kill the occupants of the house.

Adams and the others were each released on bail of $2 million and will again appear in court on June 3.
Adams, who has promised that his will be the "mother of all trials", has been suspended from the police force with 75 per cent pay, but his colleagues are not being paid.

Adams said that he "highly appreciated the efforts of the business community".
"But it is left to the people to do what they want to do in support of me," he said.
One of the accused policemen charged for the Crawle killings, Devon Bernard, was among six cops who were charged for seven counts of murder arising from another CMU operation in Braeton, St Catherine, when seven young men were killed in a house.

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