The five-year suspended sentence that was recently handed down to a confessed drug trafficker has raised numerous questions about the rationale behind the decision and according to one legal source the magistrate went outside of the law.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has since filed an appeal.
The sentence was handed down last Tuesday shortly after Leonard Bacchus acknowledged ownership of nearly 150 pounds of cocaine which was found in his Enmore home back in 2011. Magistrate Alex Moore also granted Bacchus a two-year suspended sentence for possessing 125 12-gauge shotgun cartridges and 115 .32 rounds of ammunition without a licence.
A legal source told the Stabroek News yesterday that magistrates are bound by the law and cannot go outside of it. The source explained that under the Narcotics Act, when charged with trafficking Section 5 states that if found guilty or pleading guilty the penalty is a fine not less than $30,000 or three times the market price of the narcotics, whichever is the greater, together with imprisonment of no less than three years and no more than five years.
“There was no way that it could be a suspended sentence. It was mandatory to impose a fine together with imprisonment,” the source said before explaining that a suspended sentence can only be handed down if the penalty is two years or less.
The source emphasised that Bacchus’s matter does not fall into the category of a suspended sentence because the least amount of jail time he could have gotten was three years.
“This is shocking and it is something that the Chancellor needs to address,” the source said, adding that many in the legal fraternity are questioning what went wrong in this matter.
The source said that this is the first time such a situation has occurred and expressed the hope that it be quickly dealt with.
According to the source the magistrate went outside the law and had no authority to do what he did.
The source pointed out that women go to court charged with drug trafficking offences involving much smaller quantities than Bacchus had and are sitting in jail. One such case that comes to mind is that of Shellon Hopkinson, a young pregnant mother of one who was sentenced to four years in jail after being found guilty of trafficking in 257 grammes of cannabis. There have been dozens of cases where persons who plead guilty or are found guilty of drug trafficking are sentenced to jail time. The source explained that now that the DPP has appealed the matter, a date will be set for a hearing after which the court will decide what to do. The source said that this may take some time, adding that Bacchus will probably be long gone.
“There is blatant evidence to suggest that something happened here… Something has to be done,” the source said before asking what message is being sent to society particularly in a country where drug trafficking is the order of the day. Bacchus, during the final hearing of his matter was ordered by the court to pay a fine of $2 million. His lawyer James Bond had proposed $2.5 million. Had the magistrate applied the law, the fine would have been $201.88 million or an alternative sentence which would be in addition to the jail time he would have been serving. Magistrate Moore gave Bacchus up to June 30, 2015 to pay the fine.
Prosecutor Stephen Telford prosecuted the matter and in his address to Magistrate Moore he asked for consideration to be given to the quantity of the drug involved. Following the request of Bond for a non-custodial sentence for his client, Telford asked that a custodial sentence be instituted. According to reports, the prosecutor had indicated that prima facie cases had been made out against Bacchus for both of his charges. The prosecution had also made its submission and had been waiting for defence lawyer Bond to make his.
Last Tuesday Bond was scheduled to make this submission for his client. However, in a surprise move, the lawyer indicated that Bacchus would be changing both of his pleas to guilty. Bond explained that the decision was made owing to the embarrassment and suffering endured by Bacchus and his family since his initial charges in August 2011. In addition, the narcotics case against Bacchus’ son was dismissed. John Bacchus shared a joint drug trafficking charge with his father. At the time, the boy was only 15 years old.
In his submission, Prosecutor Telford had indicated that a prima facie case had also been established against John Bacchus. Though the prosecution had at no time indicated that it would be withdrawing its case or offering no evidence against John, Magistrate Moore last Tuesday stated that no evidence had been offered in the younger Bacchus’s case and hence the matter was dismissed.
Indranie Bacchus, Leonard Bacchus’s wife, also had her narcotics trafficking charge dismissed. However, in her case, the court had found no evidence against her.
On August 16, 2011, the trio were arrested following the discovery of the drugs and ammunition concealed in the false bottoms of Kunds (receptacles used in Hindu religious functions). The Kunds were in the upper flat of the couple’s two-storey house.
A well-known businessman, who was said to be the exporter of the Kunds, was also arrested in relation to the incident but was subsequently released. Reports are that the elder Bacchus’s job was to polish them up for export.
