A minibus driver and conductor were yesterday faced with three charges, including assault, following an altercation with a traffic policeman that was widely shared in a video on Facebook.
Driver Carlos Bacchus, 29, of 26 Victoria Village, East Coast Demerara and Troy Peters, 34, of 398 Victoria Village, were each faced with the three charges when they were brought before Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus in Georgetown.
It is alleged, that on February 13th, 2019 at Hinck Street, they resisted the arrest by Officer Joel Samuels, behaved disorderly and assaulted the rank during the performance of his duties.
Both Bacchus and Peters, who were represented by attorney Everton Singh-Lammy, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Singh-Lammy made a request for reasonable bail for his clients and he told the court that Samuels and Bacchus had been sharing a relationship with the same woman. However, Police Prosecutor Quinn Harris told the court otherwise and also objected to bail being granted, citing the need for a strong message to be sent to minibus operators about assaulting police officers.
However, the magistrate eventually granted each of the men their release on a total of $60,000 bail ($20,000 on each charge).
It is the police’s case that the uniformed officer was executing his duties when he observed minibus BTT 9225 loading passengers at the south side of Hinck Street. The vehicle was at the time obstructing traffic. It is alleged that the men were told by the officer that they were obstructing traffic and they became annoyed and started to behave disorderly. They were both allegedly warned by the officer about their behaviour and they resisted arrest. The physical altercation later took place at the junction of Robb and Camp streets.
The matter was adjourned until March 11th, 2019.
