THE Court of Appeal ruled Tuesday that a policeman accused of taking a $10,000 bribe from a motorist in 2005 be retried.

It will be the third trial for Constable Handel Bernard, who last year took his case to the Court of Appeal after being fined $250,000 or being faced with a six-month prison term.

The appeal court judges made the ruling after accepting submissions made by the policeman’s attorney, Carlton Collman, that the second trial was void as proper procedures were not followed.

According to court documents, on September 26, 2005, Bernard was among three officers on duty at the entrance to the Sligoville Police Station when the complainant was held during a random spot check. It is alleged that after checking the complainant’s documents and discovering that the insurance certificate had expired, Bernard took him to a room in the police station where he allegedly demanded $10,000 in order not to prosecute him.

The complainant, however, visited the Duhaney Park Police Station the following day where he made a report to the police. The police, in turn, set up a sting operation.

On the day the money was to be paid over, the court documents said, the complainant allegedly met Bernard at a supermarket in Spanish Town where he paid over the money. The police, after allegedly seeing the exchange, swooped down on Bernard and arrested him.

But during the constable’s trial in the Spanish Town Resident Magistrate’s court, it was discovered that the indictment form used to lay charges against Bernard was used wrongfully by the prosecution, as a breach of the Corruption Prevention Act is not an indictable offence. Bernard, it was noted, should have been charged using an information form, which is used for less serious offences.

Collman argued that the trial was a nullity on the basis of the wrongful use of the indictment form. In arguing the matter before the Court of Appeal, Collman said the presiding magistrate fell into error when she allowed the prosecution to proceed with a re-trial of the case without re-calling the witnesses to give evidence against Bernard for a second time. This, he said, therefore made the trial void. The prosecution subsequently conceded to Collman’s arguments, and the judges ruled that Bernard’s sentence be quashed and ordered a retrial.

The matter is to be mentioned again in the Spanish Town Resident Magistrate’s Court on June 24. Bernard’s $80,000 bail was extended until that date.

– Vaughn Davis