Men out on bail break curfew to attend party

Two men who are before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court for larceny-related charges, admitted to breaching their bail conditions as they wanted to buy food and attend a party.

Odaire Frazer and Rushawn Alvaranga pleaded guilty yesterday before Parish Judge Jacqueline Wilcott. It was shared with the court that Frazer and Alvaranga were on bail for attempted shop breaking and, as a condition, they were the subjects of a curfew order which required them to be at home between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. However, when the police checked their homes at 11:58 p.m. and 12:02 a.m., the men were nowhere to be found. When they were accosted, they told the police they went to a party.

“Your Honour, me go buy a food and, when me come back, me hear say dem [the police] did a look fi me,” Frazer told the judge. “So you buy the food before you get home?” the jurist asked. “Yea, but me did get hungry, so me go buy it,” Frazer sought to explain. But his account was not accepted by the judge who maintained that Frazer should have purchased food before his curfew. When a person breaches their bail conditions, the bail is revoked and the person is placed back into custody. It is then left to the judge’s discretion to readmit the defendant to bail.

“Breach of the bail conditions is not really an offence, Your Honour. It is up to the judge to keep them back in custody for breaching their bail conditions until the next court date,” the clerk of court advised the judge. “You need to lobby for this to become one [an offence], a substantive one too,” Wilcott urged. The men were remanded in custody until August 4.