(Trinidad Guardian) – A magistrate has reported one of his colleagues for alleged misconduct, and the matter is now in the hands of Chief Justice Ivor Archie. The T&T Guardian has been informed that Archie has asked the female magistrate for a report, after which it will be put in the hands of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission (JLSC).
The complaint was made by Magistrate Brian Dabideen in a report dated July 10, and submitted to the senior magistrate based at the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court, Lucina Cardenas-Ragoonanan, who is also the president of the T&T Magistrates’ Association. The matter centred around the granting of bail for two drug accused, Robert Spencer and Anthony Wilson. Dabideen, who was assigned to the Eleventh Court, was reassigned to the 4A Court as Cardenas-Ragoonanan was performing other duties.
On June 29, Spencer and Wilson appeared before Dabideen in the 4A Court. In his report, he stated: “When both matters were called, the defendants were unrepresented, the charge was read and the prosecution recommended summary trial…the defendants accepted and pleaded not guilty. “The tracing report was not available as the defendants had refused to sign the fingerprinting sheet making their criminal records unable to be processed,” he said.
Dabideen said in the absence of the tracing report, the police objected to bail. He inquired as to whether the defendants had previous convictions or pending matters and the responses were noted. Both defendants were then ordered to sign the fingerprint forms and they were remanded into custody to the following day for the tracing report, and to determine whethether they should be granted bail.
On June 30, when the cases were recalled before Dabideen, attorney Patrick Godson-Phillips appeared for both defendants, who were on bail and not in custody. Dabideen, in his report, said upon further inquiry and after perusing the court documents, he realised that his previous endorsement of no bail was crossed off and bail was inserted for the defendants with a surety in the sum of $10,000.
