Two Bourda Market vendors have each been ordered to serve 10 hours of community service after a long simmering dispute erupted into physical violence.
James Brown, 34, of Lot 72 Belmont Estate, Mahaica, was charged at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts on Wednesday with unlawfully and maliciously assaulting Karon Whyte. He pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Whyte, 49, of Lot 1114 Diamond Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara, was charged with assaulting Brown, causing actual bodily harm. She pleaded “guilty with explanation” to the charge.
According to Police Prosecutor Gordon Mansfield, the two had a misunderstanding, which ended in a scuffle. However, Brown was the only one injured. A medical report was produced to the court and it stated that Brown sustained soft tissue injuries and abrasions to his right forearm and palm.
Whyte told the court that Brown blocks her stand when he has to unload items from his vehicle for his stand. She explained that on the day in question, he was about to block her stand and she told him he could not do so.
She said Brown exited his vehicle and was about to move her basket, which was in the way of his vehicle at the time, and that was when she became enraged and pushed her basket back in place. She then told the court that Brown slapped her and she picked up a piece of stick and hit him.
However, Brown told the court that he did not slap Whyte. He said she purposefully put the basket in the way of his vehicle and when he exited his vehicle to push the basket out of the way, Whyte hit him with the piece of stick and slapped him. “I didn’t fight back because I know she is a woman and I would get charged,” he said.
After listening to the prosecutor and the two defendants, Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan told the two vendors that they needed to learn to live together. “You are working together, you have to learn to compromise and keep the peace” she told them.
The two were ordered to serve ten hours of community service as a means of punishment for their behavior toward each other. They are also required to return to court on September 6th for an update on their progress on working alongside each other peacefully.
