Alicia’s Guest House case dismissed

THE case against the 12th person – a Venezuelan – who was arrested at Alicia's Guest House for allegedly breaching covid19 public health regulations in April has been dismissed.

Port of Spain magistrate Sarah De Silva on Tuesday dismissed the case against Yosmairy Yohely Duarte Vallenilla after police prosecutors refused to call their first witness to testify. There were three prosecution witness present for the virtual hearing.

De Silva overruled an application for an adjournment after the prosecution could not provide legal authorities to support their request so that they could send the file to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to prosecute the case. After asking the prosecution several times to call their first witnesses, and after they did not do so, De Silva dismissed the matter.

In giving her decision for overruling the application, De Silva referred to the criminal procedure rules and police standing orders.

Last week, De Silva gave the police one last chance in their prosecution of the case before setting it for trial.

On Monday, when the case first came up for trial, the police prosecutors asked for an adjournment since they said the matter should be prosecuted by the DPP because it was one of public interest and the issues were new and novel.

Three Mondays ago, she had dismissed the case against 11 others – five Trinidadian men and six Venezuelans – all of whom had been arrested on April 10 at the St Ann’s guest house.

The matter against the 11 had been set for trial that day, but the police prosecutors had asked for additional time for the file to be sent to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to prosecute the group. She denied the request and dismissed the 11 matters for want of prosecution. The police service has since appealed the matter.

De Silva had adjourned the matter for Duarte Vallenilla, since at the time, she did not have before her the relevant charge information. It was expected that the matter would be treated in the same way when it came up for hearing last week. Instead she gave the police one last chance to provide disclosure of its evidence since Duarte Vallenilla’s matter had not yet been fixed for trial.

Attorney Seana Baboolal represented Vallenilla and had already filed her client’s defence statement and was ready to proceed with the trial.

On Monday, Baboolal resisted the application for adjournment, pointing out that the public interest aspect had already been ventilated in the High Court and it was now for the magistrates' court to determine if the elements of a criminal offence had been satisfied. The statement said despite the request, the matter ended and the cases were dismissed.