I will stop selling ganja

The 27-year-old woman who was born with club feet and walks on her ankles, is unemployed and lives with her mother in Byron Street, La Romaine.

On Monday she appeared and pleaded guilty before San Fernando Magistrate Gloria Jasmath who placed her on a $5,000 bond and ordered her to keep the peace for the next three years or face jail. “Yes, I will stop,” Wall vowed yesterday. Like her mother Yvonne Wall, 65, who spoke to Newsday after her daughter’s court appearance, Michaeline said she too wants to move out of the environment which she grew up in.

She admitted to peddling marijuana.

She identified to her mother a person who supplied her with the drugs to sell. Michaeline is claiming police brutality while in custody on Sunday at the Marabella Police Station. She displayed cuts and bruises which she claims were caused by police officers. Her left arm is swollen and is now in a sling.

“They beat me up bad,” she said. Speaking to Newsday yesterday, Yvonne said because of her daughter’s illiteracy, she was an easy target for drug pushers in the area. She repeated her call for drug pushers to leave her daughter alone. “Giving her marijuana to sell will destroy her. Michaeline needs alot of help. It is because of her disability she never went to school. She cannot write and can only read a little bit,” the elder Wall said.

Yvonne told Newsday that Michaeline receives public assistance each month. Michaeline came into the spotlight when she was first arrested in March 2016.

Veterinarian Dr Kryiaan Singh stepped forward and paid the fine. His gesture sparked debate and a lot of people promised to assist Michaeline.

“Plenty people promised to help her to go to school, to help her to do a welding course, but nothing ever happened.” Michaeline soon fell back into pushing drugs and was again arrested in February this year. Since leaving court on Monday, Yvonne said Michaelene has been showing remorse.

“She has been crying a lot.” She said friends have been speaking to Michaeline and she is listening.

“I don’t think they could get at her again.” Yvonne, her husband Michael Nurse, 74, and their daughter live in a one bedroom house. The family is pleading for a HDC house. She wants a change of environment to help her daughter. Their call for a decent home is being supported by Michaeline’s attorneys Frank Gittens and Chantal Paul