Dear Claudienne,

I seek your help on behalf of a dear friend who was a member of the security forces for several years. After he was charged for an offence, his passport was confiscated and he has been on no-pay suspension from his post. However, he has not been terminated.

Although his case has been in the Resident Magistrate’s (RM) court system for more than five years, it seems that the prosecution team does not have enough evidence for a trial to take place. This has resulted in several postponements of the case. Nonetheless, my friend has been reporting to the police station regularly as required by the courts.

He is under severe stress, and I honestly believe that the situation is affecting his mental state.

I would appreciate your help in finding out exactly what is happening with this case.

ML

Dear ML,

When Tell Claudienne contacted the office of the Chief Justice and spoke to the executive secretary about your friend’s case, we were told to direct our enquiries to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). We note that after we contacted the DPP’s office, they sent you an e-mail which stated the following:

“In order to further assist, please send us the following information as soon as possible:

1. Name of Accused/complainant

2. Court this matter was heard (whether Parish or Circuit)

3. Last court date when the matter was heard.”

After you sent them the information about your friend, Tell Claudienne again contacted the DPP’s office. We were told that queries about cases in the RM courts that would be prosecuted by a clerk of the courts would fall under the jurisdiction of the Chief Justice.

On May 2, 2017, we brought the matter of the more than five-year delay in your friend’s case to the attention of the Minister of Justice, and on May 3 he replied as follows:

“The permanent secretary has asked the Parish court judge to investigate the matter. Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.”

When Tell Claudienne tried to get an update from the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice on this matter, she said that she had passed on the query to the Chief Parish Judge.

“We do not supervise the court. The Ministry does not supervise the court. We cannot give the courts instructions. The judiciary is independent. This matter is the purview of the Chief Justice. The Minister does not want to legislate and we cannot interfere,” the permanent secretary said.

So once again we contacted the office of the Chief Justice. However, on this occasion we spoke with the executive legal officer.

On July 5 the executive legal officer, on the instructions of the Chief Justice, sent us a statement. A portion of the statement set out that the case against your friend was “consequent to a ruling from the office of the DPP before the court on arraignment on the 20th December 2012. The file was incomplete, as some statements were outstanding and the forensic certificate from the handwriting expert was outstanding.”

“In an effort to complete the file for trial, a number of mention dates were set. The file was completed and disclosure of the prosecution’s documents made to the defence with a trial set for the 15th April 2013.

A number of issues arose which prevented the matter from being tried.

(1) The handwriting expert that did the initial report on documents allegedly signed by the accused retired and was not available to give evidence, and the process had to be repeated with a different expert.

(2) The officer to whom the initial report was made died.

(3) The original Investigating officer resigned, and a new officer had to be assigned to the matter.

(4) On two occasions the accused did not attend court, and warrants were issued for him which were later vacated.

(5) The matter was set for PRIORITY trial in February 2017 but was not reached because a trial that was ongoing was not completed and so the matter could not be reached.

The matter is now set for PRIORITY trial on the 18th September, 2017.”

Now that another priority trial date has been set, we hope that this matter will be finally resolved. Please let us know the outcome.

We wish you all the best.

Have a problem with a store, utility or company? Telephone 936-9436 or write to: Tell Claudienne c/o Sunday Finance, Jamaica Observer, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5; or e-mail:edwardsc@jamaicaobserver.com. Please include a contact phone number.