SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Defence attorney Dalton Reid has suggested that the three cops on trial in connection with the fatal beating of Mario Deane while he was in police custody in 2014 have been thrown under the bus.

The accused are Corporal Elaine Stewart along with district constables Marlon Grant and Juliana Clevon. They are all charged with manslaughter and misconduct in a public office.

Reid, who is representing Clevon, told the seven-member jury in the Westmoreland Circuit Court on Monday that while there was an inspector and a deputy superintendent of police with responsibility for the station at the time of the incident, only a corporal and two district constables have been hauled before the court.

“Now, Mr Foreman and members…, only these people you know. And, out of curiosity, I spoke to my client. Has anyone from the police federation come here? You notice every day you have Jamaicans For Justice? Well, one of them [from the police federation) came for about five minutes and left. They throw them under the bus because, if truth be told and it was in some other country, DSP Kevin Francis shouldn’t be giving evidence. He is in charge of the cell. He is the one who is required to give account, in some countries,” stated Reid who went on to refer to the senior policeman’s inability to say — during his testimony in chief — how many cells were in operation at the time of the beating.

Similar to his colleague, Martyn Thomas — who is representing Stewart and Grant — in his closing summation also had issues with two of the Crown’s witnesses.

Earlier in the day on Monday, Thomas painted the prosecution’s star witness as someone who cannot be trusted.

The witness in question was an inmate at the Barnett Street Police Station lock-up in 2014 who gave a chilling account of Dean’s beating and the reaction of the cops when they were told what happened to the prisoner.

However, during summation last week, the Crown also tried to convince the jury that they could believe the testimony of its witnesses.

On Monday, Thomas argued that on August 11, 2014 the witness told the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom) something different from what he had told the court, particularly under cross-examination during the trial. Thomas told the court that the witness was a “pathological” liar who had “concocted” his account of what took place on the day Deane was beaten. The witness had also claimed that following the incident, the three cops had returned and asked him to keep what he had seen a secret.

Thomas argued that the prosecution did not obtain evidence from the witness that he was having a big problem at the lock-up and wanted to move. It was revealed in court that the witness was held at three other lock-ups, including in Hanover.

The attorney, in his address to the jury, claimed that the witness was a “wicked young man” for lying and putting Deane’s mother, Mercia Fraser, through such trauma.

Thomas also questioned why a man who was in Deane’s cell, Demario Reid — who the witness claimed Stewart gave a bucket, mop, liquid soap, and gloves to clean cell four after the beating — was not called for cross-examination by the Crown.

Additionally, Thomas questioned the testimony of a former senior investigator at Indecom, Mollie Plummer, who he said had 10 years to prepare for court but failed to do so. Thomas said he counted 16 times that Plummer told the court she could not recall aspects of her statement.

The allegations in the case are that Deane was arrested for possession of a ganja spliff and placed in custody where he was brutally beaten on August 3, 2014. He sustained severe injuries to his brain which left him in a coma. He died three days later at Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James.

It is alleged that the three cops were on duty at the police station when Deane was beaten. It is further alleged that Stewart, who has an additional charge of perverting the course of justice, instructed that the cell in which the attack took place be cleaned before the arrival of investigators from the Indecom.

The case is expected to resume Tuesday at 9:00 am, when Supreme Court judge, Justice Courtney Daye will start his summation and instructions to the jury. This could take approximately two days.