KINGSTON, Jamaica — A police officer accused of assaulting a man with a baton, seen in a 2024 video, will return to court next May.

Maurice Hylton appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Tuesday before Judge Paula Blake Powell.

The allegations, according to the Independent Commission of Investigations (Indecom), are that Hylton used excessive force against the complainant when he struck him in the head with a baton on July 30, 2024, along Shortwood Road in St Andrew.

Following an Indecom investigation, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) ruled that Hylton should be charged with one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm contrary to common law.

Indecom representatives were in court on Tuesday alongside two police witnesses and the two complainants in the case.

Hylton’s case was moved to May 19, 2026, as he and the complainants have filed a case and cross-case, meaning both parties have filed separate cases against each other regarding the same incident.

The other case, filed by Hylton and in which he is the complainant, has already proceeded to trial, set for May 19, following the failure of the parties to resolve the issue in mediation.

Blake Powell, upon hearing this, set the Indecom case against Hylton for case management on that same date.

The judge in the trial will be left to rule on the first case, after which he/she is expected to make an order concerning the Indecom case.

— Dana Malcolm