SENIOR Superintendent Reneto Adams and two more of his former CMU subordinates were freed of murder yesterday, and the fast-talking, tough cop immediately sent a message to criminals: he’ll soon be back on the streets, so they better head for cover.

“I want to tell the criminal elements something this evening,” Adams told reporters after a jury had declared he and corporals Shane Lyons and Patrick Coke not guilty and Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe set them free. “Those of you who have returned from England, Canada, the United States or the Caribbean… or from everywhere since we have left the streets… talking about they have returned to take over the streets, I am imploring them, beseeching them to return from whence they came because so as it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end.”

Added Adams: “My men and I will continue where we left off and that is in protection of the Jamaican people against criminal elements. The only difference now is our resolve will be multiplied tenfold.”

But for all his bravado, Adams, 56, may have a long wait before he even gets backs into uniform, much more back on the streets, given a statement last night from the police chief, Lucius Thomas, indicating that the Crawle Six – the policemen acquitted yesterday and three others, constables Devon Bernard, Roderick Collier and Lenford Gordon who were freed nine days ago – will have to undergo long periods of counselling and psychological evaluation before being allowed back on the force.

“The Jamaica Constabulary Force has a clear policy regarding reinstatement of policemen and women, who, for varying reasons, are not able to conduct normal duties for over one year,” Thomas said. “The policemen and women must engage in counselling, conducted by members of the Force chaplaincy, headed by the Rev Dr Vivian Panton.”

Additionally, the police commissioner said, such officers had to undergo assessment from the JCF’s clinical psychologist, Dr George Leverage – the length of which would be determined by the findings of the professionals. It was after these “compulsory sessions” that a final assessment would be done and recommendations sent to the police commissioner for a final decision.

“It is therefore premature, at this stage, to comment on where the policemen charged in the Crawle trial will be redeployed in the JCF,” Thomas said.

Adams and his Crime Management Unit colleagues, a police squad that human rights groups claimed engaged in extra-judicial executions, were accused of murdering four persons in the Clarendon village of Crawle in May 2003.

But the police at the time claimed that the four – Angella Richards, Lowena Thompson, Matthew James and Kirk Gordon – were killed during a gunfight, when policemen came under fire, having gone to arrest a wanted man, Bashington “Chen Chen” Douglas.

During the eight-week trial, the Crown called 43 witnesses, and portrayed the Crawle shootings as an execution, after which Adams planted a gun collected by other cops from the offices of an East Kingston construction company, to suggest that there had been a firefight.

But last week Monday, Wolfe upheld no-case submissions on behalf of Bernard, Collier and Gordon, but ruled that prima facie cases had been made out against the others.

Adams, Lyons and Coke gave unsworn statements to the court and called a British forensic expert, who was down to give evidence for the prosecution but was not called to dispute definitive findings reported by the Jamaican government’s ballistic expert.

Yesterday, after five-and-a-half hours of deliberation, the jury of seven women and five men returned a verdict of “not guilty”. At least three times jurors called to see exhibits, including video footage of the crime scene shot by CVM Television.

“You are free to go,” Wolfe told the defendants.

“Thank you, my lord,” they responded in unison.

Wolfe relieved the jurors of such duty for five years.

As the jury’s foreman delivered the verdict, the decibels in the courtroom began to rise, but the judge quickly cut off the celebrators and potential dissenters.

“Anybody I see reacting. going to leave the courtroom. You can react after you leave the courtroom,” he said.

Outside the courthouse, the charismatic Adams, who was known on the streets for his SWAT team garb, was greeted by a throng of supporters.

Adams congratulated Wolfe’s handling of the case, saying that the chief justice “saw to it that justice was always revealed even when the prosecution tried to conceal particular evidence from the trial”.

He described the verdict of the jurors as the “mother of all acquittals”, a reference to his pronouncement at the time he was charged that this would have been “the mother of all trials”.

Lead defence attorney Churchill Neita QC, pointing to the length of the jury’s deliberation, said: “This means they gave it (the evidence) proper and due consideration so I am not surprised at the verdict. We believe it is a proper verdict on the evidence that the prosecution presented in the case.”