THE Police Federation, which paid roughly $10 million in legal fees for the six cops who were on Friday cleared of the Braeton Seven murders, is now moving to get them back on the job. The first step, according to federation president Raymond Wilson, is getting the lawmen to undergo counselling, and then slowly easing them back into the job.

“We are looking at counselling and reorientation before we even move into the issue of redeployment, because the results of the counselling sessions would be taken into consideration, in terms of their assignments,” said Wilson.

“We are taking it step by step.”

The first counselling sessions have already started, he said, adding that the cops’ reorientation would include “in-service training”.

“(Reorientation) is important (because) they have been out there so long; and there is also the issue of serious psychological stress,” Wilson told the Sunday Observer yesterday.

After they were charged with the March 2001 murders of seven youths in Braeton, St Catherine, Sergeant Raymond Miller, Corporal Linroy Edwards, along with constables Leighton Bucknor, Wayne Constantine, Miguel Ebanks and Devon Bernard were suspended from the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

The federation, which represents rank and file lawmen, is now in discussions with the “authorities” about when the cops can go back to work, Wilson said.

The six were among 60 lawmen from the now-disbanded Reneto Adams-led Crime Management Unit (CMU) and the Special Anti-Crime Task Force who were involved in an alleged shoot-out at 1088 Fifth Seal Way. During the shooting, Reagon Beckford, 14;

Christopher Grant, 17; Dane White, 19; Tamoya Wilson, 20; Andre Virgo, 20; Lancebert Clarke, 19; and Curtis Smith, 20, were killed. On Friday, the cops were freed in the Home Circuit Court on the basis of no-case submissions.

The case collapsed on the evidence of four prosecution witnesses who gave conflicting testimony of how the seven youths were killed.

The testimony of one prosecution witness actually supported the defence’s claim that the seven youths had been killed in a shoot-out. The case crumbled on Friday after a visit to the house where the seven youths were shot.

Crown witness Delroy Ledley was discredited after it was established that, contrary to his testimony, he could not have seen the six youth being murdered. After the visit to the death scene, the prosecution conceded that there was no evidence to link Constable Bernard to the shootings and he was freed.

Then defence attorney Patrick Atkinson made a no-case submission on behalf of the other five cops. Despite arguments from Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewelyn, Justice Donald McIntosh agreed with the defence.