NORMA Von Cork, the former resident magistrate, was yesterday taken into custody after the local appellate court upheld her conviction for attempting to pervert the course of justice by casting doubt on the 1995 drug smuggling convictions of Brian Bernal and Christopher Moore.

Radcliffe Orr, one of the four men with whom Von Cork was convicted, was also taken into custody as his appeal was dismissed as well.

Neither of the two, who had been on bail pending the outcome of the appeals, could say definitively if they intended to appeal to the United Kingdom Privy Council, Jamaica’s highest legal authority.

“I think they (my lawyers) are going to appeal but I don’t know, I have to await instructions from Mr (R N A) Henriques and Mr (Delano) Harrison,” Von Cork told reporters minutes after Appeal Court president, Ian Forte Q C, announced the decision.

Forte, who heard the appeal, along with his colleagues, justices Ransford Langrin and Seymour Panton, had hoped to deliver the reasons for the decision in writing yesterday, in keeping with the promise he made on March 11 when he reserved his judgement after hearing arguments from lawyers representing Von Cork and the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

However, the written reasons will be delivered on May 13 instead, as, according to Forte, the task had proved to be too voluminous and time-consuming to be completed for yesterday.

Lawyers representing Von Cork were equally undecided on the issue of an appeal to the United Kingdom Privy Council.

“We will have to discuss it,” they said.

Such an appeal would be the last chance for Von Cork’s lawyers to save her from the one-year sentence that was imposed on her by Resident Magistrate Almarie Haynes.

Haynes convicted Von Cork, her orderly, Ron McLean and two other men in April 2000 after finding them guilty of setting up Orr to take the blame for planting ganja in 96 tins disguised as pineapple juice. The tins, which were found in 1994 in luggage belonging to Brian Bernal, son of Richard Bernal, Jamaica’s former ambassador to Washington, were destined for a fair in the United States in which Bernal’s mother had a hand.

However, although Bernal insisted that he thought the tins really contained pineapple juice, he was sentenced to a year in prison in 1995 by Supreme Court judge, Mahadev Dukharan, who was then a resident magistrate. Bernal’s then friend, Christopher Moore, a businessman, was sentenced along with him.

The following four years saw his lawyers insisting during appeals to the local appellate court and United Kingdom Privy Council that Bernal had been duped by Moore.

Their first appeal was dismissed outright by the local appellate court.

Their second appeal to the United Kingdom Privy Council was also dismissed. However, the English Law Lords sent the case back to the local appellate court with instructions that they consider fresh evidence adduced by Moore’s older brother, Dwight.

On hearing Dwight’s evidence, which consisted of a story in which Christopher had confessed to knowing that the tins were stuffed with ganja and duping Bernal into believing otherwise, the local appellate court concluded that he was lying and proceeded to confirm the sentences of both men.

It was around the time of the hearing of Dwight’s evidence in 1997 that Radcliffe Orr, one of the men with whom Von Cork was convicted, turned up in her court in the parish of Manchester on an unrelated charge of possession of one pound of ganja.

Orr took that opportunity to claim responsibility for packing the tins, which had been found years earlier in Bernal’s luggage, with ganja.

At the end of the investigation that his guilty plea triggered, Orr, along with Von Cork, McLean; Constable Morris Thompson and one Clive Ellis, who jumped bail during the trial, as well as Christopher Moore, were charged for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

A small cadre of sympathisers, including lawyers and other friends of Von Cork, turned up to offer their condolences to the 60-odd year-old Von Cork whom they described as a very “sweet lady”.

Others who came on the scene after the decision was announced, made their way over to the Supreme Court where Von Cork was in custody to pay their respects.

“I know the whole thing looks bad and I believe she is guilty, but she was always a very nice woman and I feel for her,” said one lawyer.