Magistrate orders cop’s arrest

When PC Toussaint failed to turn up in the First Police Court yesterday, Magistrate Indrani Cedeno ordered he be arrested and granted $500 bail with a surety. Toussaint is attached to the Princes Town Police Station and was scheduled to attend court in a matter which came up for hearing before Cedeno involving a woman charged with assaulting another woman.

But yesterday, Cpl Mohan told the magistrate that Toussaint was on duty attending to a matter involving a prisoner, and could not be present in court. In issuing the warrant, Cedeno said that no one must insult the intelligence of the court.

Toussaint is a supporting witness for the State in a case in which Venra Gomez is charged with assaulting and maliciously wounding Ann Dyer. The charge alleges that Gomez assaulted Anne Dyer at Lou Lou Trace, Indian Walk, Moruga, on October 4, 2004.

When the case was called yesterday, neither the police complainant PC Othello nor PC Toussaint, was present. Former Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Indra Ramoutar-Liverpool, representing Gomez, announced that she was ready to proceed.

But without the presence of Othello and Toussaint, Cedeno was pressed to proceed with the case. Ramoutar-Liverpool complained to the magistrate that after several postponements, the prosecution had failed to indicate their readiness in the case. She asked the magistrate to dismiss the matter.

Police prosecutor acting Sgt Mohan did not have an explanation for Othello’s absence, but magistrate Cedeno noted that he had attended court previously. Prosecutor Mohan told Cedeno that PC Toussaint was on duty at the neighbouring police station.

Cedeno stood down the matter for 20 minutes. But when she recalled the case, Mohan informed the magistrate that Toussaint had gone out on a police exercise involving a prisoner.