Pardoned clerk charged again with stealing from court -lawyer calls charge abuse of police power
Tiffany Peters, a former court clerk who was pardoned by President David Granger last year after she was convicted for stealing $3.2 million from the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts Registry, was yesterday faced with a new charge alleging that she also stole $1.1 million from the registry.
The courtroom of Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in Georgetown heard that between January 16, 2012 and August 7, 2012, Peters, 26, of Lot 35 Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara, being employed as a clerk or servant at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts, stole $1,127,000 from the Registrar of the court.
Peters’ attorney, Latchmie Rahamat, told the court that she will be objecting to the charge that has been laid against her client since she was charged and convicted for the same offence with the same set of circumstances and facts. Rahamat argued that the new charge against her client is a blatant abuse of power by the police, and asked that the charge be struck out by the court.
Rahamat told the court that while Peters was doing time in prison and was preparing to file an appeal in the matter, she was pardoned by the president in 2016 and was later released. The lawyer said that after the release of her client, she was a beneficiary of the SKYE Programme, through which she learnt a trade.
Rahamat explained that the new charge came when Peters was applying for a police clearance and was contacted by the fraud squad. The lawyer appealed for her client to be set bail at less than $50,000 or granted her release on self-bail since she does not deserve to go through the same trial again. Police prosecutor Neville Jeffers had no objections to bail.
Chief Magistrate McLennan granted Peters self-bail. The matter was adjourned until January 24 for the defence to lay over submissions.
Peters, in November, 2013, was arraigned for stealing $3,045,000 from the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts between February 7 and September 11, 2012. At the conclusion of her trial in October, 2014, she was found guilty by Magistrate Judy Latchman and was sentenced to 60 months in jail. A man was assaulted by fellow detainees in the lock-ups of the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts yesterday.
Colvin Johnson suffered several injuries as a result of the attack, which was carried out by two other men.
Although it had been intitially reported that Johnson was stabbed several times about his body, Cynthia Johnson, his mother, told Stabroek News that her son’s head was hit against a concrete wall several times.
She said that as a result of the injuries to his head, her son bled from his nose, his left eye was bloodshot and his entire face was swollen.
She added that when she visited him at the hospital, she observed that he was able to stand. She said he was subsequently taken to the Camp Street jail and returned to court for 1pm to receive his next court date. She said he was taken to the Lusignan Prison afterward.
The reason for the assault was unknown but the two men who allegedly assaulted Johnson were escorted from the court after the incident.
Johnson was one of the men charged with the murder of Paul Rodney, committed, on, November 21, 2016 at Avocado Square, East Ruimveldt.
He was also one of the men charged with the robbery of America Street moneychangers.