Mark Sauers and Rolston Bacchus, who are accused of recruiting drug mules, were freed of the charges against them yesterday after the prosecution’s star witness in their trial recanted his testimony and claimed that he had struck a deal with the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) to lie on the witness stand in exchange for a reduced sentence.
During cross-examination that was conducted by Sauers’ lawyer Peter Hugh, the main witness for the prosecution Safraz Jallalodeen, who was convicted after being caught with over 10 pounds of cocaine hidden in powdered milk, yesterday told the court that he had no dealings with ‘Red Man.’
Jallalodeen was referring to Sauers.
A week earlier, he had testified that he knew Sauers and that he and his co-accused were the ones who had helped him in securing the drugs and booking a flight for him to smuggle the cocaine in milk packets out of the country.
As a result of the witness’s change in testimony, presiding magistrate Judy Latchman ruled that no prima facie case was made out against the two men. She also dismissed the case against them, while noting that the testimony that was given by Jallalodeen was manifestly unreliable.
The charges against Sauers and Bacchus state that the duo procured Jallalodeen along with Kathleen De Florimonte and Odessa Pollard to traffic cocaine between April 1 and May 19, 2016, and between July 1 and November 5, 2015.
Jallalodeen testified last week that Sauers had told him that all for he would have to do to receive US$7,000 would be to drop off a package in New York. He had claimed that both defendants had showed him other persons managing to get by the airport custom officers with drugs and later preparing him to make such a trip.
During his cross-examination yesterday, Hugh asked the witness if he believed that if he gave CANU a statement against Sauers that they would help him out.
Jallalodeen told the court that he did make up the story as he was looking for a way out of prison.
Jallalodeen, who is currently serving a four-year sentence at the Lusignan Prison after being busted in May at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri with the cocaine hidden in powdered milk, told the court that he had worked out a deal with CANU to get his prison time reduced to 18 months if he had testified against the duo.
“What was the deal they told you to make?” Hugh asked.
“I cannot tell you. 18 months in prison to testify against Red Man,” Jallalodeen subsequently claimed.
“This was not the man you had dealings with?” Hugh asked as he was pointing to his client.
“No!” Jallalodeen told the court after looking at Sauers.
Meanwhile, defence attorney Mortimer Coddette, who was representing Bacchus, suggested to Jallalodeen that he had prepared himself to tell as many lies as possible so he could get out of jail quickly.
“Yes. I admit that I told the lies on the stand to get out of prison,” Jallalodeen told the court.
The witness said he was well aware that what he had told the court was much different from what he had testified to last week.
After that revelation from the witness, the defence lawyers called for an immediate dismissal of the charges, while saying that the prosecution had no case against their clients.
CANU prosecutor Konyo Sandiford-Thompson, who was in shock by the witness’ new testimony, quickly moved to ask Jallalodeen why he was saying something different. However, there were speedy objections by the two defence attorneys, who argued that such a question could not be asked.
The matter was temporarily adjourned and when called again the magistrate gave the prosecutor the go head to ask the question, albeit with specific reference to what was different from last week’s testimony.
When Sandiford-Thompson proceeded to ask Jallalodeen if he could remember what he had said during his previous testimony, he said that he could not recall anything that he had said then.
