ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica – Detective Sergeant Sheldon Dobson, whose 18-month-old daughter died after being left unattended in his car for several hours earlier this year, had his bail extended when he appeared in the St Elizabeth Parish Court in Balaclava on Tuesday.

Dobson, who appeared before Parish Judge, Brodrick Smith, is to return to court on November 17, this year.

His attorney, Thomas Levene, told OBSERVER ONLINE that the case file is now complete and documents are to be served ahead of the return date.

“It is expected that a hearing date will be set on that date (November 17) for a determination whether there is sufficient evidence for the matter to be committed to the St Elizabeth Circuit Court,” Levene said.

Dobson had been offered bail in the sum of $750,000 when he first appeared in court on August 15 this year.

On January 17, Dobson, during a change of routine, left his daughter in his car for hours when he got to work at the Black River Police Station. The child, Shaleah Dobson, died two days later at the hospital.

Reports at the time indicated that the child would have been cared for on a daily basis by her maternal grandmother, while her parents were at work, but a day-care arrangement was made after the grandmother fell ill.

The detective sergeant in his rush to start work is said to have forgotten the child on the backseat of the car and drove off in a police service vehicle to Warminster, south-east St Elizabeth, about a 45-minute trip by road from Black River.

He then carried out a further probe into the case of a former Haitian official, who was held on January 15 along with his wife and two children.

The detective sergeant is assigned to the Black River Police Station, while the child’s mother is a sergeant of police in the same division.