3 police officers freed of misconduct charges

A Master of the High Court has discharged three police officers accused of misconduct in public office after the State failed to proceed with its case on multiple occasions.

Dion Ottley, Ryan Grandison and Steve Williams were facing four charges each of misconduct in public office. Ottley faced two additional charges for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. They were formally charged on January 13, 2016.

The case was being handled under the Administration of Justice (Indictable Proceedings) Act (AJIPA) and went through several delays. The sufficiency hearing – where the State must show it has enough evidence to go to trial – was postponed at least three times due to the State not being ready.

Reasons included errors in the indictment and key witnesses not being available.

On July 7, the matter was scheduled once again for a sufficiency hearing before Master Margaret Sookraj-Goswami. The defence, led by Senior Counsel Keith Scotland and attorneys Asha Watkins-Montserin and Sarah Carraz, was fully prepared to continue.

However, just six minutes before the 1 pm hearing, the court received an email from the state attorney saying the prosecution was still not ready. The court found the State’s explanation unacceptable.

Scotland asked the court to discharge all three officers due to the State’s repeated failures. He submitted under Sections 19 and 24 of AJIPA, the master was allowed to do so.

After reviewing the full history of the case and hearing the submissions, Goswami- Sookraj agreed and the charges against Ottley, Grandison, and Williams were officially dropped. The officers were assigned to the North Eastern Division Task Force.