3 officers for trials

President of the Police Social Welfare Association (PSWA) Inspector Michael Seales and former Beyond the Tape co-host and former vice president of the PSWA Inspector Roger Alexander will each have their cases begin on May 2, so too Constable Sheldon Mires.

Alexander and Mires are before the Chief Magistrate on allegations that they assaulted a man in Santa Cruz last year, while Seales is accused of making seditious comments on June 24, 2015 on Independence Square in Port-of-Spain. Alexander is charged with assaulting Christopher Charles occasioning actual bodily harm on July 12, 2016.

Mires is charged with assaulting Charles by beating him and committing common assault against him. Alexander is represented by attorneys Gilbert Peterson SC, and Lee Merry while Mires is represented by attorney John Heath. A state prosecutor is yet to be appointed to prosecute at the preliminary inquiry.

Appearing immediately after was Seales who is charged under Chapter 11:04 Section 4 (1) (B) of the Sedition Act. The prosecution’s five witnesses were present in court and were told to return to May 2, when Seales’ trial is expected to begin.

Seales was sent off duty for alleging, in a television interview on June 24, 2015, a conspiracy by the then People’s Partnership Government to “provoke” police officers and call a state of emergency (SoE) as a means of delaying the general election held later that year. Attorney Nigel Pilgrim of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is prosecuting.