Judge orders couple’s release

IN A CASE involving larceny, a judge has ordered the immediate release of a man, about a month after the said judge freed the man’s common-law wife who was on the same charge. Justice Kevin Ramcharan on Monday ordered the release of Antonio Anthony, husband of Alicia George, whom he freed on March 21.

George and Anthony were jointly convicted and sentenced on 49 counts of larceny on August 9, 2017. They stole thousands of dollars from George’s then employer. Both pleaded guilty and were fined. Each count carried a default sentence of three months if they failed to pay the fines which amounted to over $95,000.

The couple claimed their sentences were ordered to run concurrently, so that meant the two would only spend six months in prison if they failed to pay. Anthony, a fisherman, paid $1,000 on his fines and was unable to pay the rest. The couple was arrested on July 31, 2019, for failing to pay the fines. They both filed applications for writs of habeas corpus which were heard separately by Justice Ramcharan.

In the writ application, George’s attorneys Anand Ramlogan, SC, Alvin Pariagsingh, Jayanti Lutchmedial and Ganesh Saroop, argued there was no endorsement on the remand warrant, at the prison, on whether the default sentences were to run concurrently or consecutively.

In George’s case it was argued that there was an error in the remand warrant as the total term, if they were to run consecutively, would amount to 16 years, and the magistrate only had the power to order a maximum of 10 years.

Ramcharan admitted he had the unenviable task of trying to understand what had happened, since there was no audio recording of the 2017 sentencing proceedings available and there were three different signatures on the magistrates’ court extract.

He said there were discrepancies and without the audio recording, it was unclear who was responsible for which endorsement, since they said both “concurrent” and “consecutive,” but written by different people judging from the signatures.

Ramcharan said he would be bound by the endorsement on the extract, and had to rule in George’s favour that the order of the magistrate should have been “to run concurrently.” He ordered that she be released since her continued detention could not be justified.

Since Anthony’s circumstances were the same, Ramcharan also ordered his immediate release. The State was also ordered to pay 75 per cent of the couple’s legal costs.