Magistrate chides Clerk of the Peace for remanding trio

The men, Stephen Nancoo, Sherran Moore and Don Rochard, all three who are 28 years old, had appeared before the Clerk of the Peace who read the charge to them and did not call on them to plead. The court police prosecutor, Sergeant Alexander, did not object to bail. Attorneys Ainsley Lucky and Andre Rajkumar ,who represented the men, had pleaded to the Clerk of the Peace to grant the men bail, both having submitted that the three had no previous convictions.

The trio was in a car on Harris Street, San Fernando on Thursday last when police arrested them.

The Clerk of the Peace did not ask Nancoo, of San Fernando, Moore, of Palmiste and Rochard, of San Fernando Street, whether they had previous convictions.

She did not enquire either, from the police prosecutor, whether summary trial was being recommended.

Justices of the Peace and Clerks of the Peace presided in the magistrates’ court throughout the country on Friday last because judicial officers were on a retreat. Cases in the High Court were also postponed.

When the Clerk of the Peace remanded the men, they were taken in a prison van where they spent the weekend at the Maximum State prison. Yesterday, Nancoo, Moore and Rochard, were escorted in handcuffs before Magistrate Bramanand Dubay in the Sixth Magistrate’s court in San Fernando and he read the charge to the three. Attorneys Lucky and Rajkumar then began to complain about the incarceration of the trio on Friday last.

Lucky began by telling Dubay that on Friday, the Clerk of the Peace refused the three accused men bail, though the prosecutor did not object and the men had no previous record of criminal conduct.

“In the face of such a minor charge, the public must never be deprived of their liberty.

They should have been given their own bail. Such persons who have no past criminal record, have to sit in a cell, can cause them to trip. In this sorry justice system, the prisons has become hate factories.” Dubay said, “The Clerk of the Peace had no legal right to make such an order.” He granted each accused their own bail of $5,000 and postponed the case for next week Thursday.