Collin Denny, who was on trial for allegedly trafficking five pounds of cannabis in 2018, was freed of the charge on Thursday.
Denny was freed after Senior Magistrate Leron Daly upheld a no-case submission made by the defence. Denny was charged with trafficking 2.366 kilogrammes (equivalent to 5.2 pounds) of cannabis on September 26th, at Church Street, Georgetown.
The charge, which he denied, was instituted by Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU).
During his arraignment, the CANU prosecutor had told the court that the minibus that the man was in was searched and the cannabis was found.
Denny’s attorney, Eusi Anderson however, submitted that the prosecutor’s evidence was insufficient. According to Anderson, there was no evidence and no case for his client to answer. Senior Magistrate Daly, who was presiding over the trial, upheld the no-case submission on Thursday.
In a release, he said that his client had spent three years living under the stain and stigma of “what is essentially malicious prosecution”. He said that the prosecution’s evidence was based on the similarity of his client’s vehicle to the person who was committing the offence. He added that his client was arrested nine hours after the initial time that the alleged trafficking occurred.
Further, he said “there must be consequences for these lapses of judgment in assessing the matter of whether or not to prosecute. One such consequence is an action for malicious prosecution against the State. This will be filed within short order”.
In May, 2018, Denny and his co-accused and common-law wife, Malika Softleigh, were freed of the charge of trafficking cannabis after trial magistrate Judy Latchman found no evidence against them. They had been charged with trafficking 57.8608 grammes of cannabis in three 100-pound gas cylinders.
