Police flock court to support rape accused
SEVERAL police personnel crammed inside the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court last Friday as one of their colleagues — the reigning top cop of the Jamaica Constabulary Force — was hauled before the court for allegedly raping a doctor.
Sergeant Oneil Patterson was charged on Friday following a ruling Wednesday by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
But when Patterson appeared before Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey for bail, his hopes for regaining his freedom was left in doubt after his attorney made an application which did not please the magistrate who had to stand down the matter.
Patterson was however offered $300,000 bail on condition that he surrender his travel documents, with a stop order in place.
But before he was offered bail, Pusey who felt that the application was too weak, insisted that she was not going to grant him bail all because he was a policeman.
“I don’t have any buddy system in here and I don’t want no chorus saying that I am to offer him bail because he is a policeman,” she said.
Pusey had enquired about the safety of the complainant and was informed by Harris that her client was not a threat to the alleged victim. Harris and the investigating officer also told the court that Patterson had surrendered himself to the police.
However, Pusey at that point said that she was not comfortable with the application and stood down the matter.
But when the matter was again raised, Harris maintained that her client surrendered himself and handed his car over to the police for testing when he heard the report and also that there was no report of him interfering with the complainant.
She also told the court that her client’s reputation was very important to him and that he would no nothing to jeopardise it.
“You see you make a better application. Before it was a run of the mill,” Pusey said. “But I am not granting him bail because he is a policemen as the offence for which he is charged is grave and is waiting.”
But Pusey added: “I know what I would say if I was making the application, which you did not say, but I am grating him bail.”
Patterson is accused of sexually assaulting a medical doctor on the compound of the Elletson Road Police Station on May 23 after they reportedly went on a date. The two had reportedly participated in a Labour Day project at Bellevue Hospital.
However, Patterson’s lawyer told the court that her client was denying most of the allegations although he admits to knowing the complainant.
He is to return to court on July 9.
Jamaica House throat slasher attacks jealous lover
Andre Pratt, the man who came to public attention in 2009 after he went to the Office of the Prime Minister and reportedly cut the throat of a policeman after his demands to see the prime minister was not met, has again found himself in trouble with the law.
The former cash book officer at the Inland Revenue Department, who suffers from a metal disorder, was this week hauled before the court on a charge of unlawful wounding, following allegations that he slammed his girlfriend’s head against the wall repeatedly.
Interestingly, immediately after his case was mentioned, Pratt pointed out an accused man, whose case was just completed, as the culprit who had robbed him of his cellphone when he was attending Wolmer’s High School for Boys.
However, Pratt in his defence against told the court that his girlfriend got jealous and attacked him with a knife and he had to shove her into the wall to fend her off.
“Your Honour my girlfriend and I and went to funday and I saw two sistren and was talking to them and is that she saw and got heated about it,” Pratt said.
Stemming from that, he said she got a knife and was swinging at him and he could not get it way from her so he shoved her and she hit her head in the wall.
Further to that, he said, he was advised to report the incident to the police but said that he developed a phobia for police personnel and did not report the matter.
Pusey, after listening to Pratt who also has another case before the court for punching a police sergeant, told him that his explanation amounts to self defence.
However, she told him that she was going to remand him into custody for the psychiatrist to have a second look at him.
Pratt was initially remanded into custody for psychiatric treatment when he was arrested in 2009. He is however scheduled to return to court on July 1 while the case with the policeman is scheduled for trial on Monday.
Businessman arrested for allegedly selling car to cop
A Corporate Area businessman who reportedly sold a stolen car to a policeman and is facing additional charges in connection to six other stolen cars, was remanded into custody.
The accused, Alvin Lugg, appeared in court with his attorney, Xavier Mayne to seek bail. But Pusey after hearing that that police is to lay more charges against Lugg in relation to the other stolen cars, advised the lawyer to defer his application.
Lugg is charged with receiving stolen property.
According to police reports, on March 17 the complainant drove his wife’s car to Portmore in St Catherine and it was stolen. However, on May 21 he was travelling on Harbour Street in downtown in Kingston when he reportedly spotted his car and summoned the police.
However, when the police arrived it was revealed that the car belonged to a policeman but that policeman said that Lugg sold him the car. The court was also told that the policeman bought the car with the same licence plates.
But according to Mayne, his client bought the car from another person after he did the necessary checks, including checking with the police to ensure that the car was not in fact stolen.
But Pusey asked which police he checked with and was told that he had asked his police friend who had asked another to check on the status of the car and was told that the car was in the clear.
“People don’t steal car unless they have someone to sell it to and if he is the man who is selling them, then he is the man I want to keep,” Pusey remarked.
However, she told Mayne to suspend his application until the other matters are brought before the court.
Lugg was then remanded into custody until June 12.
Man takes gas in exchange for damaged windshield wipers
A man who took matters into his own hands after his car was reportedly damaged at a service station and took a little over $7000 worth of gas in exchange for the damage, was hauled before the court for stealing the petrol.
Anthony Charlton was arrested and charged for simple larceny after he went to the Shell service station on Constant Spring Road in Kingston and took the gas without paying for it.
However, when Charlton appeared in court, he told Pusey that he went to the service station to buy gas and that his car’s windshield wipers were damaged and that the management refused to compensate him for the $13,000 damage.
“Your Honour I went there and I took the gas and I write a letter and left my name and number,” Charlton said.
But Pusey was not amused.
“You know what, I suggest you take out the money and pay for the gas or I am going to lock you up for it,” she said.
The magistrate told Charlton that he cannot take the law into his hands and that he should go about seeking redress the proper way.
“You go and seek proper redress for there is something called claim of right but that is not how it is done,” Pusey said to Anthony after he paid over $7500.79 for the gas.