FIVE Jamaican policemen, all former members of the now disbanded Crime Management Unit (CMU), claimed yesterday that their United States visas have been cancelled.

The cops – Patrick Coke, Devon Bernard, Shane Lyons, Roderick Collier and Leford Gordon – who were charged with the 2003 murder of four civilians, including two women, in the deep rural district of Crawle, Clarendon, were all acquitted by the Jamaican High Court last December and were soon after reinstated to their jobs in the constabulary.

Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams, who headed the controversial CMU, and was reinstated to the constabulary just Monday of this week, said he did not know if his US visa has been cancelled, but should know today.

“I really do not know at this point. But tomorrow (today) I will be making an effort to find out from the embassy,” Adams told the Observer. “If that is the case that would be a travesty of justice,” he added.

In the meantime, Glenn Guimond, the spokesman for the US Embassy in Kingston, yesterday declined to comment on the issue. He said the issue was a private matter and as such he could not comment.

Yesterday, Constable Bernard said the cancellation of the visas was a concerted effort to further punish them for the Crawle killings, although they were tried and acquitted by the court.

“Why are we still being punished. We were found not guilty, but it would seem that we will never be able to resume the kind of life we had before the trial,” Bernard said.

Bernard told the Observer that in February, Collier travelled to the US where he was held for several hours before being told that a stop order was placed against him and the other policemen who were charged in the Crawle shootings.

Bernard said that as with all such cases, travel documents were seized, but that after the case the documents would have been handed over back to them.

“Our lawyer had to submit a letter to the embassy stating that we had been acquitted of the charges. We did that,” Bernard said.

According to Bernard, last Thursday, Leford Gordon, another of the acquitted policemen travelled to the US on vacation leave.

However, when he arrived at the JFK International Airport in New York he was held for about six hours and was eventually sent back to Jamaica, after being told by immigration officers that his visa had been revoked. “That was how we knew something was wrong,” Bernard said.

Bernard said he and the four other policemen went to the Homeland Security Office in Kingston on Tuesday and was directed to the US Embassy, where they were officially told of the cancellation of their visas.

Constable Bernard said he was told by an embassy official that a reapplication for the visa would be acceptable, but it was not a guarantee the cancelled visa would be reissued.

“This is clear cut punishment. I was also involved in the Braeton case and after that none of this occurred. So why now?” asked the policeman.

clarkep@jamaicaobserver.com