I was a much younger man when legendary criminal defence attorney Ian Ramsay, King’s Counsel, died. I had been blessed with the privilege of working on a number of cases with him over a few years prior to his death.

I felt then, as I feel now, that he is probably the most intelligent person I have ever interacted with. This was not just limited to law. His knowledge was endless.

After his passing there seemed to be a void in the Jamaican judicial system. It has never quite been filled. There have been many great attorneys, but there was only one Ian Ramsay.

When I heard of the passing of Valerie Neita-Robertson recently, the feeling of a void, which I had not felt since the passing of Ian Ramsay, returned.

Neita-Robertson was unique in her own way, not just because of her legal knowledge but because of the passion she exhibited, irrespective of whom she was defending. I did many cases with her, and virtually all were for police who were charged for on-the-job shootings that resulted in death. She was the battle axe, whether she was lead counsel or not. She was always ready for a fight, like a pit bull with a cause.

Many readers will not understand how difficult it is for many of us police officers who will face the possibility of being charged because some family member, gang member, or community footstool gives a statement claiming that he/she saw what he/she didn’t see.

The level of control over communities by gang members and gangs in general puts them in a position to demand even the organs out of some of these community inhabitants’ bodies. They will say anything they are told to say just to ensure their safety.

Then there is the family. They say any and everything to get their pound of flesh. It’s complicated, but often misunderstood, that the primary weapon used against front-line police officers is statements, not firearms.

To be fair to the modern-day Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom), it will at least ensure that there is some commonality between physical evidence and evidence-based witness accounts before it recommends that the officer be charged. It was not always so.

When the system does not work and officers find themselves before a court, there’s disconnection from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) rather quickly after being interdicted or suspended. You feel alone. Although you will get assistance from various arms of the JCF, for the moment you are put out to pasture. In many ways, you are on your own, until you sit down with Neita-Robertson and immediately you are joined by a passionate advocate who will fight your case. She’s not just representing you, she’s fighting for you. And you’re not alone in the case — you and her are fighting a common enemy.

No attorney, despite his/her competence, does this like she did. There are many greats, but she alone had the ability to make you feel like she’s in the prisoner’s dock with you.

Long before she was a King’s Counsel, she was the people’s counsel, and as far as she was concerned, if you were being unfairly treated, you needed justice, you deserved justice, and she was going to fight for it.

There was a terrible chapter in the lives of those of us who had to fight the gangs between 2011 and 2018. The Indecom at that time still believed it had the power to charge police officers without going through the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

During this era the lives and careers of many cops were destroyed. The person who stopped many from giving up was Neita-Robertson. No matter how lonely and overwhelmed you felt, once you had a chat with her, your case was fine. This was her greatest gift.

As a crime scene reconstruction expert, I often worked for her. The last case I had done was the Keith Clarke matter, in which I was her blood spatter expert. My last conversation with her was after the case was completed.

We were chatting some weeks later about the case. We both lamented the 14 years the soldiers had been before the court and the fact that, no matter what happens from hereon, their careers, and their lives have been seriously retarded from what they could have been.

We spoke about the press coverage in the initial stage after the shooting. I asked her why didn’t the military announce from day one that Clarke had shot several of the soldiers?

Her reply was, “Case try in courthouse, not on TV.”

I pondered on this for some days. I intended to have this conversation with her the next time I saw her, but that conversation didn’t happen because soon after I heard she was ill, and then I heard she died.

I am so sorry that I didn’t complete that conversation because it is one of the few areas that we disagreed on. Human rights groups, politicians with an agenda, and gangs try police cases in the press and often win those cases in the minds of the Jamaican people.

Years later, when the police are acquitted, most who condemned the police from misinformation have moved on to great careers and the convinced public don’t even know that the case has been tried and the police freed.

Val, I am personally going to miss you. The front-line police officers who you have represented will miss you. The ones you still represented up to the time of your passing are at a disadvantage without you. We all are going to miss our “warrior”. But we think of you and remember the lives you saved from total destruction.

Your passion, your anger, your sense of justice, your competence, your spirit will all be absent from the courtrooms around the island.However, your memory strengthens us, and just as you stepped up for the front line, the police of this country will continue to stand up for the many citizens whose human rights are being violated everyday by gangs.

We will bravely do what we need to do to keep our island safe and hope that there is another Valerie Neita-Robertson out there who believes in us as you did.

Rest peacefully, my friend.

Feedback: drjasonamakay@gmail.com