Furious magistrate delays reading charges
Magistrate Rhondell Weever Tuesday blasted police ranks for acting as if she was running a ‘cowboy court,’ after a series of errors by investigators forced her to postpone reading charges against two men accused of murdering wholesale vendor Saeed ‘Sayo’ Hamid. She was also unable to read charges of accessory to murder against the slain man’s son, due to other errors in the case docket. Antonio Singh Balrup and Satrohan ‘Bluey’ Madray were due to be remanded on charges of murder, while the slain man’s son, Asif Hamid, who is already incarcerated for another murder, was due to be charged for being an accessory in the slaying of his father. Police brought the shackled men to the Blairmont Magistrate’s Court, at which Magistrate Weaver is presiding, and it was then that the confusion began. As the three men were escorted into the courtroom, Satrohan Madray displayed his torso while claiming that he was beaten to “admit to things me nah know about”, while Hamid and Balrup remained silent and entered with their heads bowed. Court commenced shortly, but police did not present the files for the case until two hours later. This forced Magistrate Weever to adjourn until after lunch. When the case for the three accused was called, the policeman who had to swear to the information was nowhere in sight.
The prosecution then requested a few minutes to locate the rank, but Magistrate Weever, who was clearly annoyed said: “I have been here since nine o’clock and I still have to wait for the officer?” But then when Magistrate Weever scanned the documents pertaining to Asif Hamid, the accused accessory to murder, she noticed that the charge read “the New Amsterdam Magisterial District”, a district in which she does not have jurisdiction. Some 30 minutes later the police returned with the corrected file and subsequently took Madray and Balrup back up to court, with Asif Hamid remaining in the lock-ups. As she was about to read the charges, she again observed that Hamid’s charge of accessory before the act, indicated that the offence was committed in the New Amsterdam Magisterial District, to which the Magistrate had previously explained she has no jurisdiction over.
(Kaieteurnews)