(Jamaica Observer) A businessman found himself in trouble with the law after he damaged a Toyota Prado motor vehicle that his ex-lover and her new friend were travelling in during an incident in July.
When the matter was called up in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Friday, the court was told that on July 31, Herman Moncrief, who shares a child with the complainant, saw a man driving the vehicle that he still legally owns and chased it along Maxfield Avenue in Kingston.
But the vehicle didn’t get far as the traffic lights at the intersection of Maxfield Avenue and Hagley Park Road changed from green to red.
The prosecutor said Moncrief approached the vehicle in an attempt to seize it and threw an object in it, which shattered the glass.
By that time, the complainant told her friend to step out of the vehicle and locked herself inside.
Moncrief later hit her, the court was told. Additional information revealed in court suggested that that was not their first physical encounter.
The prosecutor told the court that they got into a fight on July 12, when Moncrief, who was on his way to the tax office to transfer the vehicle in her name, saw a ‘hickey’ or love mark on her neck.
Moncrief’s attorney-at-law Stephen Shaw argued that his client was working at the time when he saw a stranger driving his vehicle and he gave chase.
Shaw told the court his client gave the complainant the motor vehicle for the benefit of their son.
“So, he never saw her?” Parish Judge Vaughn Smith asked Shaw.
Shaw said when his client caught up with vehicle the driver retreated.
Insisting that his client is the owner, he said Moncrief had bought the vehicle and had only allowed the complainant use of it, mainly to transport their child.
The attorney also told the court that his client had plans to sell the vehicle and give her the proceeds from the sale.
Shaw indicated to the court that his client was willing to attend mediation to settle the matter.
An October 18 date was subsequently set for them to return to court, whether or not the mediation is successful.