Now high court cases stall

Justice Malcolm Holdip had to adjourn seven cases, despite the fact that in all these cases, both the State and defence attorneys were ready to proceed.

Ayers-Caesar lasted all of 15 days as a judge before tendering her resignation to President Anthony Carmona so that she could revert to her previous post as Chief Magistrate and adjudicate on several outstanding matters in the lower courts.

Senior attorneys at the bar had expressed the view that Ayers-Caesar should not have been elevated until her partheard cases in the lower courts were heard and dealt with.

Upon taking up her appointment, Ayers-Caesar was assigned to the Third Criminal Assize court where she replaced Justice Althea Alexis-Windsor who is now sitting in the Second Assize court.

Holdip is presiding in the First Assize.

Ayers-Caesar had adjourned several cases last week when she was welcomed to the bench by attorneys in San Fernando.

Yesterday, she was expected to fix for trial any of the seven cases on the Third Assize court list. The cases are: causing death by dangerous driving; indecent assault; attempted murder; possession of drugs for trafficking; common assault; causing death by dangerous driving and possession of drugs.

Justice Holdip adjourned his court and called the Third Assize court to order where he then proceeded to adjourn all seven cases.

P r o s e c u t o r s Shabanna Shah and Krishna Jaglal were present and when each of the seven cases were called, Shah announced the prosecution’s readiness to proceed.

Defence attorneys Chateram Sinanan, Cedric Neptune, Kevin Ratiram and Jason Jackson, all indicated their readiness to proceed in their respective matters.

Criminal cases have already been assigned to the court for the month of May and that means a judge — either Alexis- Windsor or Holdip — would have to leave their courts and adjourn the list until a new judge is assigned to Court Three.