THE date December 15, 2009 is indelibly etched in the memory of Desmond ‘Shawn’ Kinlock. His early return from work to his modest two-room home at 31 Upper Jacques Road in East Kingston that morning marked the beginning of a hellish nightmare that haunts him to this day.

For the past year-and-a-half, the 34-year-old Kinlock — who had “done all kinds of jobs since leaving high school” to support his family — worked on one of many “wacker” teams hired by the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) to keep the roadways free of overgrowth.

His routine had been consistent: Turn up for work by 4:00 am; within minutes or hours his team, along with others, would fan out across the Corporate Area and the rest of the island, working until 2:00 pm, sometimes until late evening, depending on the workload. But on that December morning, a disagreement at work resulted in him being sent home shortly after reporting for duty.

Some time later Kinlock was arrested by members of a police patrol and charged with illegal possession of an M16 rifle, 30 rounds of ammunition and two ballistic vests.

What followed was the usual disputing of facts that is expected when a person is charged.

Jacques Road is a winding thoroughfare, located in a depressed section of Mountain View Avenue. The area — especially Upper Jacques Road — is dotted with rows of zinc-fenced yards and heavily vegetated open lots. Like most inner-city communities, this gives the area a ghostly appearance during the day when there is hardly anybody around.

The area has, over the years, gained notoriety for violence which is often perpetrated by young men who form themselves into gangs and trade bullets. This has resulted in heavy police/military presence in the area.

On the morning of December 15, 2009, around 10 o’clock, the police/military party that accosted Kinlock was conducting a patrol and was drawn by the sound of gunfire to the vicinity of Upper Jacques Road where Kinlock, a father of three children, lives with his common-law wife and then six-year-old daughter.

According to statements given by the two policemen in the foot patrol, a group of men ran on seeing them, setting off a chase. Kinlock, according to the statements, was chased onto his premises, closely followed by Constable Denny McFarlane.

“At no time did I lose sight of him. I followed him into the dwelling house where I accosted him,” said McFarlane in his statement given a day after Kinlock’s arrest.

McFarlane was followed inside the house by Special Constable Patrick Campbell and two members of the military, whose names are being withheld by the Sunday Observer at the request of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF). McFarlane, according to his statement, cautioned Kinlock and asked him whose house it was.

“I have been living here all my life and I am employed to the National Solid Waste Management Authority,” Kinlock replied, according to the statement.

The house was searched and nothing illegal found. But McFarlane, according to his statement, looked up in the ceiling “where I saw what appears to be the carrying handle of an M16 rifle”. McFarlane said he retrieved the loaded weapon with the assistance of the other members of the patrol.

A loaded magazine was also found beside the weapon. A further search of the ceiling turned up the two vests, according to McFarlane’s statement which was corroborated by a statement from Special Constable Campbell.

According to McFarlane’s statement, when he asked Kinlock if he had a permit for the weapon, Kinlock answered “No offica”.

Kinlock was taken away, according to the statements, and charged the following day with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition and unlawful possession of stolen property in relation to the police vests, which had been reportedly stolen a year earlier from the locker of the Harmon Barracks.

With the find, Kinlock was facing at least 20 years behind bars if convicted in the High Court Division of the Gun Court.

Attorney Tom Tavares-Finson was sitting in his Laws Street offices in downtown Kingston when Norrine Green, the mother of Kinlock’s six-year-old daughter, came by during the week of December 22. Green was at the house when Kinlock was arrested. By the time Green visited Tavares-Finson, Kinlock had already been in jail for a week and had made an initial appearance in court but was now without an attorney.

Green related Kinlock’s story to Tavares-Finson who informed her, “If that is the way the story goes, the police do not have a case.” Green felt reassured and left the office, heartened at the prospect that the man with whom she had shared a life for the past decade could be freed.

For their part, Tavares-Finson and his son Chris visited the home for themselves and had pictures taken of the location. A background check was also made in the community which, they said, yielded no negative report about Kinlock.

As a result of what he had been told by Green, the senior Tavares-Finson in February 2010 wrote to the JDF asking to interview the soldiers who were on the patrol when Kinlock was arrested. McFarlane, the arresting officer, did not take statements from the soldiers.

On February 2, 2010, Kinlock was offered $300,000 bail in the High Court Division of the Gun Court but was not able to take it up until 10 months later, on December 4, because of an issue with his name.

While in lock-up at the Horizon Adult Remand Centre, Kinlock was reportedly ganged and beaten two months before taking up his bail. The result was a swollen and discoloured eye. He did not report the assault to the authorities, he said, because he feared it would earn him more beatings.

But the beatings and intimidation in jail were not his main concern. Every waking moment, he said, was filled with the thought of being imprisoned and not being able to watch his children grow into adulthood. Also, he worried that he would not be able to survive prison life. The stress of his situation, he said, resulted in his hair starting to grey.

Green, in the meantime, was facing her own struggle, having to support her daughter and foot the bills, plus provide for Kinlock’s needs in jail from the minimum wage she earned working in the hotel industry in Kingston. She had already exhausted her savings on legal and other costs associated with Kinlock’s incarceration.

The year 2010 was coming to a close. Several court dates had passed. But the soldiers were not made available for questioning. At each court appearance Tavares-Finson reportedly raised the issue, saying that the matter could not go to trial without statements from the soldiers.

Finally, as a result of a letter from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) on February 18, the soldiers were taken to the ODPP on March 18 and statements were recorded by the police personnel stationed there and subsequently disclosed to the defence.

Tavares-Finson said he has had cases before in which police officers have been caught perpetrating lies. But the shock in Kinlock’s case was no less overpowering when he read the soldiers’ statements. Sitting in his office, Tavares-Finson thought to himself: ‘How could people be so evil that they would send an innocent man to jail on a lie.’

The soldiers’ statements in relation to who found the gun and where the gun was found were — in the words of DPP Paula Llewellyn — so “diametrically opposed”. According to one of the soldiers, whom we will call Soldier X, it was in fact he, and not Constable McFarlane, who made the discoveries.

Additionally, Soldier X said the gun, vests and ammunition were not found in the ceiling of Kinlock’s room but in the box eaves of another side of the house, which is occupied by other tenants. According to Soldier X, Kinlock’s section of the house was searched and nothing found. Soldier X said the party was leaving the premises when he turned around and saw the handle of the gun sticking out.

“I have come across this before, but this is so pernicious because of the seriousness of it. It’s one thing to say you find a man with a revolver, it’s another thing to say that a person is found with an M16 rifle and 30 rounds of ammunition and police ballistic vests,” Tavares-Finson told the Sunday Observer.

For decades, Jamaicans have complained that some members of the police force lie in the execution of their duties. At least one policeman has admitted to the Sunday Observer that it is done to strengthen the police’s case in order to secure convictions, especially in circumstances where the accused is wanted by the police. But Kinlock was not wanted by the police, and he did not have a criminal record.

“He’s a decent, hard-working person,” Green said of Kinlock.

Although the statement was disclosed to the defence in March, the case was not tried until October 4. During the one-day trial before Justice Paulette Williams, the policemen maintained their story. So too did Soldier X. In the end, the charges against Kinlock were dropped when the prosecution offered no further evidence.

Kinlock was elated.

The Sunday Observer met him the day after. Tavares-Finson had called following the acquittal to inform this reporter of the case. I passed Kinlock in the lobby of Tavares-Finson’s office without even noticing he was there. He is an unassuming person, small in stature and seemed reserved. He speaks in a low, almost inaudible voice.

Kinlock needed to get his side of the story out. He was not running from the police; he was actually asleep, he said, when the police busted into his room and he was not asked if he had a permit for the rifle.

According to Kinlock, he was beaten by the police in front his terrified daughter and Green. He also said he was threatened by the police with death and had a gun stuck to his head. One of the soldiers, Kinlock said, had to tell the police that there would be no killing while the military was around. He said the police kept accusing him of owning the weapon.

Kinlock’s thoughts on the police today: “I view dem worse than a criminal because they are here to serve and protect and the way how dem deal with me a no serve dem a serve and protect. If it wasn’t for Mr Tom Tavares I would be looking to go to prison for how many years for something I don’t know about.”

He said he fears that the police will come after him and he is planning on leaving the area.

Kinlock is also preparing to sue the State for false arrest and malicious prosecution. Tavares-Finson said he has written to the DPP and Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington with a view to having McFarlane and Campbell charged with perjury.

Kinlock is to appear in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court on November 10 when the charge in relation to the bullet-proof vest is expected to be dropped.