Court dismisses police appeal against vendor

In dismissing an appeal by the police yesterday against market vendor Randy Bissoon, the Court of Appeal ordered the State to pay costs.

The Court, comprising Justices Lionel Jones and Wendell Kangaloo, agreed with senior Magistrate Annette McKenzie that the identification against Bissoon was  “vague, flimsy, doubtful and unreliable.”
When the matter came up before McKenzie, attorney Dave Persad obtained a fiat from the DPP to prosecute the matter while Israel Khan SC defended Bissoon.

After cross-examination of the victim by Khan,  McKenzie agreed that the identification of Bissoon was vague, flimsy, doubtful and unreliable and so wrote among her reasons for dismissing the police case against Bissoon. Although an appeal was filed by Persad, no one showed yesterday to contest the appeal on behalf of the police. In spite of this, the court decided to go ahead with the appeal and after looking at the evidence agreed with the magistrate’s finding.