FOUR police officers and a former colleague who were in October 2005 charged with attempting to extort $2.5 million from Kingston businessman Marvin Wong, were all freed yesterday when they appeared in the Half-Way-Tree Resident Magistrate’s Court.

Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey, in upholding a no-case submission made by the men’s attorneys on May 8, ruled that the conspiracy to defraud charge laid against each of the men – ex-cop Grantley Vickers and Constables Omar Francis of the Motorised Patrol Unit, Kevin Thompson and Clarence Ducile of Denham Town Police Station and District Constable Ainsworth Williams – be dropped.

“I am not calling on these men to answer to the charges against them,” Pusey said. “I do not feel satisfied that a jury, properly advised, could convict them,” she added.

Pusey said she had difficulties in believing the testimony of a major crown witness as well as the evidence that placed each of the men at the scene during their arrest by the police.

“There are a lot of little things that when you put them all together do not add up,” said the magistrate.

The prosecution, which was led by Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Tara Reid, alleged that the policemen and ex-cop conspired to extort $2.5 million from Wong between January 17 and January 28 in 2003.

The defence attorneys for the men maintained on May 8 that the crown had failed to satisfy the conspiracy charges against their clients because only one witness made allegations of extortion and conspiracy, and that these were never corroborated by the testimony of other witnesses. The lawyers also maintained that the witness contradicted himself on many occasions during the course of the trial.

Following the no-case submissions on May 8, Constable Dave Austin, who was initially charged along with the five, and who is assigned to the Canine Division, was released by Pusey.

His attorney, Peter Champagnie, argued that Austin was arrested only because he was in the company of the other cops when they were arrested, and that he was never identified by prosecution witnesses during identification parades in the matter.

Vickers and Ducile were represented by Valerie Neita-Robertson, Francis and Williams were represented by Linton Walters and Thompson by Tom Tavares-Finson.