THE defence team in the ongoing trial of alleged Klansman gang leader Tesha Miller and 24 other accused, in concluding hours of protracted questioning of police witnesses formerly attached to the now defunct Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Investigation Branch (C-TOC) about a botched 2018 robbery, on Wednesday prevailed on the court to issue subpoenas for three of the four individuals who had been arrested in connection to appear before it, insisting, “we would want them alive”.

This, as one of the four individuals was shot dead in December 2023 during a confrontation with the police. The dead witness in the statement given on October 2, 2018, which was on Tuesday entered into the records of the court, had detailed the genesis of the plot to rob “millions” of dollars from a mail van which serviced the South Camp Road to Cross Roads route in the Corporate Area in September 2018.

The planned raid had, however, been thwarted by cops assigned to C-TOC after they received intelligence about the attack. That witness and three others were that day arrested and taken to C-TOC’s headquarters where they were interviewed, profiled, and fingerprinted. Statements were also recorded from the men who were eventually released without being charged.

The defence team for Miller and the accused Michael Wildman, who have been named in the two counts on the indictment where that robbery is reflected, have been hacking at the credibility of officers from C-TOC brought by the Crown so far; charging that they used underhand methods to get information from the men and so had turned them loose because deals were made under the table. Furthermore they raised suspicions about the decision not to charge those men despite their “confessions”.

The attorneys in making those accusations also requested the court to order C-TOC and the Half-Way-Tree police to turn over their station diaries for September 26, 2018 to October 4, 2018 reflecting their records for the period the four men were in their custody.

The requests came after a detective inspector, who led the operation, and a detective corporal, who took the statements of two of the men (including the deceased witness) in taking the stand, were drilled for days on end by defence attorneys about the procedure used to collect statements from individuals and witnesses. The attorneys were at one in arguing that the constitutional rights of the men had been breached as they were held for more than 24 hours without being charged, among other things.

Defence attorney John Mark Reid, who alongside attorney John Clarke and others represent Miller, in cross-examining the detective corporal who took the statements, suggested that, “it was a common C-TOC practice to have suspects and individuals have unrecorded meetings with superior officers before other officers take statements”. According to Reid, this runs counter to the police rule book which states that “suspects rarely give confessions without demands and incentives” and on this basis “required” that statement takers should have an independent witness present when taking statements. This he said was not done in the case at hand and was a deliberate ploy.

“Detective, I’m going to put it to you that despite your exemplary standing within the Jamaica Constabulary Force, you deliberately ignored the well-established rules, practices, regulations and procedures, as it relates to the statement taking process of the suspect [name withheld]. I’m going to put it to you that you were instructed to not make any record of your interaction and notes of the questions asked to [name withheld], as you have always done,” Reid charged.

When the detective corporal denied that this was so, Reid went on to charge that she was not only in collusion with the prosecution to frustrate his cross-examinations, but had lied to the court. In further alleging that C-TOC routinely “infringed the rights” of individuals in order to collect evidence, Reid told the cop that she could not answer in the affirmative out of fear of being “fired”.

Wednesday, the prosecution in objecting vociferously at several junctures to the line of questioning, charged that the queries being put to the witness were “unfair” as they sometimes referenced information that was not in evidence before the court, with a senior prosecutor at one point in cutting Reid off midstride declaring, “this is not a commission of inquiry, I would ask that defence counsel stick to the issues at hand”.

Reid, however, in maintaining that his questioning was relevant to his team’s case theory, contended that the witnesses brought by the Crown had to be tested for it to be made apparent to the court. In countering objections from the Crown following his suggestions to the witness that C-TOC, which was equipped to tackle organised crime “was dismantled because of allegations of organised crime”, Reid argued that the question was “relevant as it relates to the practices and procedures of this organisation that we are, of a well-founded view, played a vital role in the investigation and detaining and prosecution of these men before the court”.

Sitting judge Justice Dale Palmer, in pointing out that he has given “latitude” to the defence team for Miller, was at pains to point out that “it has been a long run up to the pitch” with the attorneys being “meandering” in their approach.

The matter resumes Thursday at 10:00 am.