Magistrate Yohhannseh Cave says Commissioner of Police Henry Greene made an unwarranted criticism in suggesting that there was some link between the escape of Jermaine ‘Skinny’ Charles and the time he signed the remand warrants on the day of the prisoner’s court appearance.
He said yesterday the warrant was not signed at 3 pm as stated by the commissioner and referred to the statement made by the top cop at a press conference on Thursday as erroneous.
The Magistrate told Stabroek News that while he is in sympathy with the obvious pressure faced by Commissioner Greene with regard to the present crime situation and as well as “ the obvious and farcical dereliction of duty which allowed a prisoner to escape, the commissioner was totally wrong”.
Magistrate Cave said that the commissioner was simply wrong in speaking whether expressly or impliedly to suggest that the court in the exercise of its administrative functions in signing the remand warrant contributed to Charles’ escape, adding that Greene would have found out the particular facts had he had the courtesy to call him before speaking publicly on the issue.
On Thursday Greene told reporters that Charles and another prisoner were taken out of the Sparendaam lock-ups at around 11:30 am for court where they spent about 10 minutes and were then returned to the lock-ups as the police awaited the magistrate’s signature of the warrants before they departed for the Georgetown Prison.
He was quoted as saying that had the warrants been signed in a timely manner by the magistrate the prisoners would have been returned to the Georgetown prison earlier. Greene said further that he has personally spoken with Magistrate Cave and was in the process of contacting Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary Carl Singh with a view to having warrants for high profile prisoners treated expeditiously after court appearances.
According to him, it was when the police received the warrants at about 3.30 pm and were ready to move the prisoner that they discovered that `Skinny’ had escaped. He added that from all appearances the prisoners were left unsupervised and no one visited the lock-ups prior to 3:30 pm.
“I have not contacted the commissioner but I am surprised because I have a line of communication with him and have made contact him prior to make suggestions as to how the court and the police can coordinate efficiently in the administration of justice”, Magistrate Cave stated.
He said Greene never contacted him on the issue to get a broad perspective but rather sought to rely on the information provided by police ranks that are obviously under tremendous strain in seeking to explain why the prisoner escaped.
“Even with the information supplied to him, if he assumed it were true, he could not logically assume that there was a link between when the warrant was signed and the escape”, the magistrate said.
The magistrate explained yesterday that the warrants were signed shortly after 2 pm when he returned from his lunch break. Magistrate Cave said he signed the warrants immediately upon his return and before going on the bench.
He questioned how his signing the warrants at 2 pm could delay the transport of the prisoners to the prison when Charles was never discovered missing until shortly before 4 pm.
He stated that if the commissioner had checked he would have found out that the warrants can only be signed when they are prepared by the police and handed to him for his signature. The magistrate added the warrants were handed to him for his signature when he returned from his lunch break.
Further, the magistrate said, that it had long been the court’s position that there should be better security arrangements in place at the court to facilitate the safe and efficient transfer of prisoners from the police station to the court. He noted that despite many representations there had not been any action up until the morning after Charles escaped.
Magistrate Cave said, that most importantly the commissioner said he had intelligence suggesting that relatives of Charles were trying to facilitate his escape by supplying him with a firearm, adding that he is interested to know when Greene got that intelligence.
“I first heard of this intelligence when it emanated from the news reports following his recent press conference and in the interim, myself; staff and persons in the court have been at risk without our knowledge, if the information is true”, he added. He noted that of late no additional or special security arrangements have been put in place to guard against such an occurrence in the event that the information was available.
According to the magistrate, Charles’ family members and visitors to the court are allowed to enter without being subjected to any bag or body search and once in the court, they are allowed to sit in close proximity to the prisoners and the bench.
Up until ‘Skinny’ escaped, he said, this is what has obtained in the court noting that he is particularly interested in when the commissioner had the intelligence of the plot to free the prisoner.
In addition, the magistrate said, that even if he had signed the remand warrant at midnight instead of 3 pm as stated by Greene, the fact remains that the prisoner was supposed to be in a secure location in the custody of persons who had a mandate to securely detain him and transport him to the Georgetown prisons. (Iana Seales)
