Ex-police informant acquitted of gun charge

A PENAL MAN who was once a police informant but stopped communicating with them after he was shot for giving them information has been acquitted by a Princes Town jury of possession of a firearm charge he said was fabricated.

Bert Hudlin was before Justice Geoffrey Henderson charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition on March 5, 2002.

On July 11, the jury took just over 26 minutes to return a unanimous not-guilty verdict for Hudlin, who went on trial on June 3.

It was the prosecution’s case that a search warrant was executed on Hudlin’s home on March 5, 2002. His front door was open at the time and police entered. It was alleged after the warrant was read to Hudlin, he stood up, raised his hands and said he had a gun.

A firearm was allegedly found when he was searched and he allegedly told officers people were trying to kill him. He was taken to the San Fernando CID, where he was charged.

In his defence, Hudlin maintained the case against him was fabricated. He contended he was an informant for the two police witnesses, now senior police officers, with whom he shared a long history.

He said he stopped giving information to them after he was shot in 2001 for giving information to the police.

His evidence was that on the night of the incident, the officers came to his home about 10 pm, while he was watching television with his pregnant wife and brother-in-law, asking about “Apache.”

He said he told them he did not know where "Apache" was,and was told to get dressed, as the police commissioner wanted to see him.

Hudlin got dressed and the police took him to the San Fernando CID. When they got there, he said one of the officers took a gun from his back pocket and told the station sentry, “We just hold Bert with a firearm.”

Hudlin was then charged.

At the trial, the State led evidence from an assistant commissioner of police and a senior superintendent.

Hudlin’s attorneys led evidence involving one of the police officers in a civil case where the court found evidence was fabricated.

Hudlin was paralysed from the waist down in a shooting incident in 2007.

He was represented by Delicia Helwig-Robertson and Shuzvon Ramdass of the Public Defenders’ Department.