(Trinidad Express) BAIL of a quarter-million dollars each was yesterday granted to two police officers charged with the abduction, rape, and buggery of a woman in Chaguanas.
Officer Steven Worrell, 35, and Marvin Mitchell, 32, secured bail during an appearance before Chaguanas First Court Magistrate Gillian David-Scotland.
Although the men were brought from prison, they were not handcuffed as they were taken into the court. Other prisoners were handcuffed, as is the policy of the Court and Process Branch and Prisons Service.
Several police officers also formed a human barricade and, with upraised arms, shielded the men from media cameras.
Attorney Joseph Honore appeared for Mitchell and attorney Sunil Seecharan for Worrell.
Honore submitted that his client had cooperated, participated in an identification parade and has been in a police station cell since Monday.
He complained that the jurisdiction for the matters was in Chaguanas, yet the police officers first appeared in the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
The men are charged with the kidnapping, rape, buggery, and sexual assault of a woman at Connector Road, Chaguanas on March 30.
They are also accused of two offences each of misbehaviour in public office, after allegedly demanding $1,000 to forego a criminal charge against the woman’s boyfriend.
They are also charged with receiving $940 from the man to forego the charge. The charges against the officers were laid indictably and the officers were not called upon to enter a plea.
The charges were laid by Sergeant Deodath Seepersad of the Professional Standards Bureau.
The officers, who were attached to the Highway Patrol unit based at Freeport Police Station, were denied bail in the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court and remanded in prison custody.
Attorney Honore said the charges were “overstated”.
Honore said Mitchell, who has eight years’ service and is a single father of one, was willing to report to the nearest police station if granted bail.
Attorney Seecharan said Worrell was the father of two and he and his wife were expecting a third child.
Worrell was said to have 15 years’ service.
The case was adjourned to May 23.
The officers were granted bail and one of the conditions was that they make no contact with the alleged victim and keep at least 100 metres away.
