SIX reputed members of the Klansman Gang — a criminal outfit based in Spanish Town — were yesterday offered bail in the sum of $800,000 when they appeared in the St Catherine Circuit Court.

They are 37-year-old Omar Pertrie, otherwise called “Freezer”; Tashoma Heslop, 21; brothers, 29-year-old Donovan and Jermaine Richards; Kenroy Scarlett; and Delroy Kelly — who are all charged with being a part of a criminal organisation

Heslop, Pertrie, and Scarlett are also charged with extortion, while the brothers are charged with professing to be members of a criminal organisation.

The accused men were offered bail by Justice Stephanie Jackson Haisley following bail applications by their attorneys.

They were each offered bail on condition that they find alternative addresses outside of Spanish Town to live, report three time per week to the police, and abide by a curfew order.

Attorney-at-law Russell Stewart, who is representing two of the accused — Scarllet and Heslop — told the Jamaica Observer that the men who has been in custody for the past nine months were granted bail by the judge, who accepted that nothing much was being done to advance the Crown’s case and that the men were left to suffer on account of the prosecution’s shortcoming.

“Each and every time time we went to court the deadlines set by the prosecution to bring in additional documents was not met.”

Said the lawyer: “Donovan Richards, Omar Pertrie and Tashoma Heslop allegedly demanded and collected money from several business owners in and around the Spanish Town commercial area in exchange for protection. They are also accused of threatening to set the business establishments ablaze if their demands were not met, but there is nothing substantially that really pins the accused men to the offence for which they are charged, save and except for persons who are operating under pseudonyms.”

The men who were arrested in police operations in St Catherine last October are to return to court on September 25.

— Tanesha Mundle