DPP may transfer 6 cops' murder trial to Port of Spain

Six police officers accused of murdering three friends in Moruga in 2011 may get their wish to have their trial heard in Port of Spain as the Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, SC, has reportedly agreed to transfer the matter.

On Thursday, at the start of what should have been jury selection for the trial at the court facilities in Princes Town, lead counsel for the six, Israel Khan, SC, made a formal complaint to the presiding judge, Justice Carla Brown-Antoine, of the case being heard at the O’Meara Judicial Centre in Arima,

Khan’s contention is that a gazetted notice by the Chief Justice in April 2022 could not circumvent the law on where the trial COULD be held.

Khan had threatened to boycott the trial if it was heard in Princes Town or Arima and said he was prepared to face a contempt of court charge for disobeying a court order.

Jury courts at the O’Meara centre were designated as a place for the sitting of the Supreme Courts and Summary Courts for criminal cases. Khan maintains this is illegal, as subsidiary legislation cannot trump statute, and that the trial can only be transferred to Port of Spain by either the judge or the DPP. He also said the DPP could not transfer the trial to the new Arima courts as the law did not provide for it or any other similar judicial centre.

He said the law would have to be amended to include the O’Meara courts and other similar judicial centres as had been done decades ago for cases when a court was set up in Chaguaramas.

The Criminal Procedure Act was amended to give the DPP the power to transfer a trial to Chaguaramas for any criminal offence that would, otherwise, be triable in Port of Spain, San Fernando or Tobago.

Khan said this would have to be done for the court in O’Meara.

In a statement in June 2022, the Judiciary said the establishment of the O’Meara Judicial Centre, at the site of the former UTT campus, was approved by Cabinet and had been designated as a place for the sitting of the Supreme Court and the Summary courts with effect from April 2022 when trial by jury resumed after being suspended because of the covid19 pandemic.

On Thursday, Brown-Antoine adjourned the matter to June 26, when she is expected to rule on Khan’s submissions. However, she may not have to make a ruling if the matter is formally transferred to the Hall of Justice in Port of Spain.

Khan also said this will give the Government time to have the act amended to recognise, by statute, the O’Meara court and other similar judicial centres.

If the matter is transferred to Port of Spain, a jury pool will still have to be selected from the southern district since the alleged offence took place in the county of Victoria and the six cops are required to be “judged by their peers,” Khan said.

Once a jury is selected, it is expected the trial will begin in September as the courts go on vacation from July.

Meanwhile, the six accused cops will remain on remand until the end of their trial as the Court of Appeal on Wednesday ruled they had no right to appeal a judge’s refusal to grant them bail.

Sgt Khemraj Sahadeo and PCs Renaldo Reviero, Glenn Singh, Roger Nicholas, Safraz Juman, Antonio Ramadin are accused of murdering Alana Duncan, Kerron Eccles, and Abigail Johnson on July 22, 2011.

Duncan, 27, of Duncan Village, San Fernando, Eccles, 29, and 20-year-old Johnson, both of St Mary’s Village, Moruga, were driving in Duncan’s vehicle when police stopped it at the corner of Rochard Douglas Road and Gunness Trace in Barrackpore.

Initial reports claimed the friends shot at the officers, who returned fire.

A female colleague was initially charged alongside her former colleagues from the San Fernando Robbery Squad, but the charge against her was dropped and replaced with a lesser charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice after she agreed to testify against them.