AFTER 24 weeks before the courts, two postponed trial dates and more than five months behind bars, failed pyramid scheme operator and former school teacher, Esmie Jones, is expected to have her day in court on December 5.

Her $1-million bail was extended when she appeared before the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court Wednesday. Jones, who has been residing in Kingston since she took the bail offer three weeks ago, is to report to the Matilda’s Corner police in Kingston one day per week as a condition of her bail.

Delford Morgan, Jones’ lawyer, told the Observer that his client had not relocated to Kingston in an effort to hide away from her St James “investors”, but was in fact exercising “an abundance of caution”.

“It’s not that she was hiding from anybody in St James, per se, since she has been journeying from Kingston to Montego Bay to report to the police,” he said.

He added: “She is quite happy and she is looking forward to the trial with high expectations for her eventual acquittal.”

In the last 24 weeks, the 64 year-old Jones has been threatened and chastised by “depositors” of her failed Speedy Cash pyramid scheme. She has also had to endure the continued delays that have plagued the case. In the first few weeks. The delays were caused by the failure of investigators to complete the case file and more recently, they have been caused by the resignation of her two previous attorneys.

Her first attorney, Ray-Norcliffe Edwards abandoned the case in favour of a position as a clerk-of-court in Portland in early August. Her second attorney, Victor Robinson, who had been assigned to the case by way of Legal Aid, withdrew from the matter last month.

His withdrawal came in the wake of allegations that Jones would not get a fair trial in Montego Bay since members of the city’s justice system had also “invested” in the scheme. Those allegations were made by Jones’ daughters in an interview with the Observer.

In that interview, they also said they would try to secure the services of a Kingston-based attorney to represent their mother, despite the fact that Robinson had already been brought into the matter via Legal Aid.

Meanwhile, Morgan has vowed to stick with her and said he is optimistic that the outcome of the trial will be in his client’s favour.

“She is charged for misappropriating money and I don’t see how the crown is going to be able to prove that, since all the available evidence suggest that the moneys were all paid out to the persons (who “invested” in her scheme),” Morgan said.