A police witness was yesterday accused of withholding important evidence during his testimony about injuries that assault accused Jason Abdulla claimed he sustained at the hands of lawmen.
Detective Corporal Hamlet DaSilva yesterday took the stand at the trial of Abdulla, Kwame McCoy, 40, and Shawn Hinds, 51, who are charged with assaulting Freddie Kissoon, a newspaper columnist and activist, whom they allegedly doused with human faeces during an attack in 2010.
During DaSilva’s evidence-in-chief, he admitted that he escorted Abdulla to a hospital after there was an allegation by attorney Latchie Rahamat that the man was beaten by officers while he was in police custody at Eve Leary.
The witness had said that Abdulla, who was walking normally before, was examined by a doctor and his leg was placed in a cast. Abdulla was also given a medical certificate by the doctor to take back to the police.
Rahamat, who first crossed-examined Da Silva, put to him a series of questions concerning the eve of February 17, 2016, when she went and made a report to ASP Mitchell Caesar that Abdulla was beaten by the police.
She questioned the witness on whether he was there at the time, which he denied before later clarifying that he was there but was in another room.
Her questioning, however, was short-lived when the magistrate realised that she was not questioning the witness on behalf of her client, McCoy, but in relation to Abdulla, who has two lawyers, Euclin Gomes and Glenn Hanoman.
Hanoman, who took over the cross-examination, asked the witness if it was true that when he took his client back to Eve Leary, with the issued medical certificate and with the bandage on his leg, Caesar tore up the medical certificate and sent him back to the hospital with Abdulla to have the bandage removed by the doctor and another medical certificate issued. DaSilva denied that his superior told him to go back to the hospital.
Hanoman told the witness that it was odd that after complaints were made into the alleged beating of Abdulla at Eve Leary, that the investigations were done by officers at Eve Leary. DaSilva admitted that he assisted in the investigations of the alleged beatings.
The lawyer further put to the witness that he had gone back to the hospital a second time to get a medical certificate and he left that important part out of his evidence-in-chief. Hanoman further charged that DaSilva was not being forthright with the court and that he was deliberately leaving out important aspects of the complaint and investigations of the complaint.
DaSilva, however, said the assertions were not true.
Hanoman, who later conferred with Abdulla, then put to DaSilva that he tried to escape through the back entrance of the hospital with Abdulla when reporters wanted to take pictures of his client. The lawyer said that DaSilva prevented reporter Travis Chase from taking pictures. The witness said that it was not true.
Meanwhile, attorney George Thomas, who represents Hinds, suggested to DaSilva that on February 16, when he arrested his client, he never said that it was for an assault on Kissoon. Thomas put to the witness that Hinds was wanted by Caesar in relation to Courtney Crum-Ewing’s death. DaSilva told the court that Hinds was wanted for the assault and he cannot recall anything about Crum-Ewing.
Thomas then asked the witness if Caesar had said to Hinds that “he [Caesar] would deal with him because the place got a new boss.” DaSilva said that he did not know about that.
After DaSilva’s testimony, Police Prosecutor Shawn Gonsalves told the court that there are four remaining witness for prosecution.
Presiding magistrate Judy Latchman adjourned the matter until November 4.
