A handful of Dr Jephthah Ford’s supporters yesterday protested outside the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court against his six-month prison sentence for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The sentence was imposed by Parish Judge Simone Wolfe-Reece just before midday.

However, Ford was offered $1-million bail after his attorney Bert Samuels indicated to the court that he will be filing an appeal.

An hour after the sentence was handed down, Ford’s supporters, clutching placards, mounted a peaceful protest outside the courthouse.

In 2014, he was arrested and charged after attempting to bribe a police officer to release two Surinamese men who had been caught with nearly $60 million. He also requested the return of the confiscated funds.

During the 10-day trial, which started in May, prosecutor Joel Brown led evidence that Ford was caught on camera offering a percentage of the money seized to a police officer in exchange for the release of the men and the funds.

The two foreigners — Roshen Daniels and Murvin Reingould — were held after police intercepted a motor vehicle on Half-Way-Tree Road in St Andrew on April 7 and found US$533,886 and J$1.3 million.

The men were later taken to their apartment where the police seized an additional US$3,000, J$700 and 55 Surinamese dollars.

The two were subsequently charged with possession of criminal property and conspiracy to possess criminal property, but were freed of the charges when they appeared in court.

Dr Ford had contacted the officer while the men were in custody and requested a meeting to discuss the case.

During the meeting, Ford was captured on camera asking for the case against the men to be dismissed.

Ford told the court, during the trial, that he had been trying to assist the Surinamese men by preventing them from remaining in custody because he feared they were going to be killed by the police.

He also indicated that he knew that he was being recorded but did it to “draw out corrupt cops”.

At least one of his supporters yesterday claimed that the doctor was convicted and sentenced because he wasn’t a foreign national like the Surinamese men, who were freed and sent home.

“The persons who had that money were given a free ride. Everybody gone back where they came from. Just because Dr Ford was trying to help, which he always does, that was what landed him in this… She (the judge) got all the evidence and still it came to this,” Nana Wilson told the Jamaica Observer.

Wilson, who is a retired teacher, credited Dr Ford’s intervention for her success.

“Dr Ford made me what I am today. I was trained as a nurse at his office. He sent me back to school and then I became a teacher. You drop out a school and things nuh happen the way it is supposed to happen, but when he saw me he said, ‘Listen to me, you are too good a person and too bright a person to just leave your life hanging’,” Wilson told Observer, adding that soon after she enrolled at Bethlehem Moravian College, formerly Bethlehem Teachers’ College.

Ford’s twin brother, Japheth, who became emotional when the sentence was handed down, said he is disappointed in the judgement.

Dr Joan Porteous, who agreed with Wilson, said she thinks the judge could have been more lenient.

“Being operative in a society [that is] violent and corrupt, the doctor has never got himself in trouble. I am wondering what happened to the people who were charged with the money,” Porteous said, adding that she is still in disbelief that the court found him guilty.

Wilson’s granddaughter, Dana Campbell, who was seen inside the courtroom minutes before the matter was called up, told the Observer after Ford’s sentencing that he should have got a non-custodial sentence.

Campbell, 21, who is also one of Ford’s patients, explained that the medical doctor became her father figure after her biological father died when she was six years old .

“I remembered when there was a lump in my breast in fifth form and the first year of university, I had to do lumpectomy surgery to remove the lump. He was there through the entire process,” Campbell said.

Gripping a placard with the words “Free Doctor Ford”, 25-year-old Chadwick Nation said: “Dem man deh mek nuff young youth start work and put down gun. Him have a tyre shop, clothes store and a studio, him have work fi wi even if a two subjects wi have him a gi wi work.”

Prior to the handing down of the sentence, Ford’s attorney, who was also his fourth character witness, testified that his client is a good person who, through his actions had enabled his mother to live for an additional five days after she collapsed on Red Hills Road.

Yesterday, Samuels explained that his client had administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and had taken his mother to the hospital. However, she died five days later.

Samuels, who testified that he has known Ford for more than 30 years, asked the judge not to impose a prison sentence.

“At this age, persons should be leaving an institution not going in,” Samuels said, adding that “confinement would be a misfit for his character”.

According to Samuels, Ford’s action was borne out of always seeking to intervene. However, he admitted that Ford’s intervention was wrong.

“He has allowed his good intention to cloud his better judgement,” Samuels said.

Last Friday, three other character witnesses, including Minister of Culture, Gender Affairs, Entertainment and Sport Olivia “Babsy” Grange, took the stand on Ford’s behalf.

In the meantime, Samuels asked the judge during mitigation not to take into consideration that the social inquiry report stated that his client had shown no remorse.

The judge subsequently requested 10 minutes to consider the sentence.

When the matter was recalled, the judge said she took into the consideration the passionate plea that was made by Samuels as well as the fact that Ford did not plead guilty.

The judge noted that she had looked at all the circumstances, but said the court was seeking to prevent recurrence.

Notwithstanding the evidence that was given by the witnesses as it relates to his work and generosity, she said that the court does not have to reflect on public opinion but will consider it.

The judge also noted that she considered the aggravating factors and was of the view that he used his beliefs to intervene with the police officer.

“I can’t encourage citizens who take matters in their own hand. It would be a chaotic society,” the judge said.