Inquiries adjourned as State lawyers fail to show

CHIEF Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls was in full support of the actions taken by State attorneys to stay away from court, despite the forced adjournments of two preliminary inquiries that were expected to be wrapped up yesterday afternoon at the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Eighth Court. 

“I don’t blame them, they deserve a better pay package,” said Mc Nicolls after he had adjourned one inquiry and was about to adjourn another. “Maybe if they get an increase, there might be something extra for me too,” he added as he laughed heartily. As a result of the absence of State attorneys Marissa Gomez and Jennifer Martin, the prosecutors in the two matters scheduled to be heard yesterday afternoon, Mc Nicolls told the court, “Considering the circumstances, I’ll have to adjourn the matter.”  

Acting Insp Kenneth Cordner, who had taken up the slack for State attorney Natasha George earlier in the day, said he could not again do so for Gomez and Martin because he was “not so privileged as this morning,” when he was in possession of the relevant file from the DPP’s office. Since he had not received any word from the DPP, he said, there was nothing he could do.

State attorneys took a decision to stay away from the courts in protest of Government’s delay in the approval and payment of increases in their interim allowances. State attorneys also stayed away yesterday from the High Court and Appeal Court both in Trinidad and in Tobago. For the past few months the attorneys have expressed serious concern over meagre pay package.