Prisoners leave courtroom in frustration

Chicki Portello, Kareem Gomez, Levi Joseph, Anthony Charles and Israel “Arnold” Lara left the courtroom in the Port of Spain Magistrates Court as acting Chief Magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle was seeking to update them on the status of their case.

Earle-Caddle was telling them that the transcripts for their case were not yet available, but the group, whose frustration led to a near-riot last month to protest former chief magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar’s appointment as a High Court judge, was having none of it. They walked out on Earle-Caddle who was in mid-sentence.

“We making jail,” said one of the men, raising his voice.

Another said it was a “sad story.” Their protests were heard down the corridor and downstairs in the prisoner holding cells at the courthouse on St Vincent Street.

Their case was adjourned to July as were several others called before the acting chief magistrate yesterday.

Murder-accused Nigel “Dufu” Mayers and his two co-accused were also agitated but did not create a row, instead putting several questions to Earle-Caddle.

Among them were the status of Ayers-Caesar which had been raised on June 1 by Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, SC.

Earle-Caddle responded that the former chief magistrate’s status was public knowledge.

After Ayers-Caesar’s elevation to the High Court, the Judiciary first said her appointment as a judge would not have any negative impact on the administration of justice and on, in particular, those matters over which she had been presiding. But the day after the prisoners’ protest, the former chief magistrate resigned.

Ayers-Caesar, who presided in the Eighth Magistrates Court in Port of Spain up until her elevation to the Supreme Court on April 12, resigned as a judge on April 27.

Most of the cases were adjourned yesterday to July 24, but one of the men will return on July 10 to receive a further status update.