6 cops to go on trial for murder on Tuesday

OPENING statements are set for Tuesday morning at the Hall of Justice, Port of Spain, in the trial of six police officers accused of murdering three friends in Moruga in 2011.

On Monday, 12 jurors were empanelled and six alternates were chosen ahead of the start of the trial, which was moved from San Fernando to Port of Spain.

Leading the case for the State is Senior Counsel Gilbert Peterson, who will address the jury in his opening statement before evidence is led.

The police officers are represented by a team led by Senior Counsel Israel Khan which includes Ulric Skerritt and Arissa Maharaj.

In June, Khan complained to the presiding judge, Justice Carla Brown-Antoine, about the case being heard at the O’Meara Judicial Centre in Arima, instead of the San Fernando High Court, which is undergoing repairs.

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.

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 then wrote to the DPP asking for the case to be transferred.

Also last month, the six officers were denied bail when the Court of Appeal ruled they had no right to appeal the judge’s refusal to grant them bail.

Sgt Khemraj Sahadeo and PCs Renaldo Reviero, Glenn Singh, Roger Nicholas, Safraz Juman and 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 in Duncan’s vehicle when police stopped it at the corner of Rochard Douglas Road and Gunness Trace in Barrackpore. Initial reports claimed that the friends shot at the officers, who returned fire.

A WPC was initially charged alongside her former colleagues from the San Fernando Robbery Squad, but the charges were dropped after she agreed to testify against them. She was instead charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice under her plea agreement.