Supreme Court frees cocaine in fish glue case accused
- a magistrate had sentenced him to jail; imposed a $254.4M fine
By George Barclay
THE full sitting of the Supreme Court last Friday freed 45-year old Vishnu Bridgelall called ‘Halfa’ of trafficking in narcotics and set aside a conviction by a magistrate who had jailed the convicted man for 10 years and fined him $254.4M which represented the value of the cocaine allegedly found in fish glue.
 But the court found that the magistrate erred in finding the accused guilty of possession.
Bridgelall and three others were charged with the offence of having 20 kilogrammes of cocaine in their possession for the purpose of trafficking which was said to have been committed on Wednesday May 16, 2007, at Charlotte Street, Enterprise, East Coast Demerara.
The two charges had accused them firstly of having a narcotic in their possession, that is to say 20 kilogrammes of cocaine, for the purpose of trafficking.
The other charge had accused them of having 86.5 kilogrammes of cocaine, for the purpose of trafficking.
Bridgelall who normally buys and sells fish glue for export, had in a statement said he heard that a man at Enterprise had some glue to sell so he hired Thakoor and Khan and they went to enterprise.
He added, “We arrived there about 11.30 a.m. We met the fella who selling the glue. His name is Percy.
“As we were discussing price in the yard, I see two minibuses pull up and some men jump out and said that they are CANU (Customs Anti Narcotics Unit) officers and Percy asked me to open the gate for them. They said to us they come to look for drugs and I said I don’t know anything about any drugs. I told the officer I only just come a few minutes ago to buy glue.”
After allegedly finding cocaine in the glue, the officer charged Bridgelall, Chandrika Chattergoon c/d Percy, Thakoor Persaud and Azad Khan with having cocaine in their possession.
The Magistrate dismissed the charge against Persaud and Khan but found Bridgelall and Chattergoon guilty.
Bridgelall was fined $48,000,000 in one charge and $206, 400,000 plus five years on each charge, with an order that the sentences should run consecutively.
Chattergoon was fined $10,000 together with 4 years imprisonment.
Chattergoon did not appeal.
Senior Counsel Mr. Bernard DeSantos had argued the appeal on behalf of Bridgelall and got the judges, Chief Justice Ian Chang, S.C. and Justice Rishi Persaud to agree that the magistrate erred in finding that Bridgelall was in possession of cocaine. The appeal against the appellant Bridgelall was allowed. Conviction and sentences were set aside. Bridgelall was awarded costs in the sum of $2,000.
Lawyers who appeared for the appellant and the other defendant in the magistrate court were Mr. Anil Nandlall, Mr. Vic Puran and Mr. Sanjeev Datadin. Mr. De Santos did not appear in the small Court. Burrowes refutes insinuation in erroneous Prime News report
- makes it clear he has ‘no misunderstanding’ with Minister Ramsammy EXECUTIVE Director of the Health Sector Development Unit (HSDU) within the Ministry of Health, Mr. Keith Burrowes, has vehemently refuted an erroneous report aired last evening on the television newscast, Prime News, which stated that he had resigned his post, and that his resignation stemmed from a misunderstanding with Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy.
But without confirming or denying whether he has actually resigned, Burrowes, in a telephone comment to this newspaper shortly after the television newscast, made it clear the Prime News report was not true.
Burrowes also said contrary to what was reported on the newscast, he has “no issue with Minister Ramsammy”.
“This is not true,” Burrowes said, adding that, like any other organisation, there will be disagreements and just supposing there were disagreements between himself and the health minister, those would have been strictly on ‘Projects’.
Burrowes even went as far as saying that he shares a “very cordial” working relationship with the Health Minister.
According to Burrowes, he will not resign at the behest of anybody but when, and if he does decide to resign as Executive Director of HSDU, it would be because he wants to move on and certainly at his own calling.
“I will not allow any personality to provoke me into resigning; I am not easily influenced into giving up anything…and I want to make that clear,” he told the Guyana Chronicle.
City Hall still in the dark
By Telesha Persaud
TOWN Clerk (Ag), Ms Yonnette Pluck, yesterday said that she was seeking to formulate new proposals to submit to the Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) in an effort to remedy the current disconnection issues.
Speaking with this newspaper in a telephone interview, Pluck said she was about to meet with several members of the Council to come up with such proposals because any new suggestions “would have to be based on directives of the Council.”
Ever since GPL disconnected electricity from all the departments at City Hall, Pluck said there has been no new development and that they are still using stand-by generators.
She pointed out that “everything is the same” except that the Council has been unofficially informed that GPL will be adding interest to the sum owed by the municipality.
Pluck expressed concern over the fact that a Day Care Centre in East Ruimveldt and a Health Centre in Charlestown are also without electricity.
She said the Health Centre encountered many difficulties due to the blackout, including the storage of vaccines.
In a press release recently, GPL claimed that it does not owe the M&CC $700M as the Council claims.
“According to GPL’s records, it indeed has an outstanding balance for rates and taxes to-date of $113M. Our annual rates and taxes is $22M, while the annual electricity bill for the M&CC is approximately $180M,” GPL said.
The release said numerous meetings were held between the parties since 2005, at which several agreements were reached to have the Council reduce its indebtedness, but these were repeatedly breached by the Council.
Correspondence from the Company to the Council indicating its willingness to settle all outstanding debts by way of an exchange of cheques have been ignored, GPL said.
“GPL pointed out to City Hall on countless occasions, in writing, that interest on outstanding taxes should be waived as GPL was always willing to pay, but needed to have this done through an exchange of cheques,” the release added.
It further said that their correspondence has received no response to date and, in light of this, GPL made the decision not to pay interest on any rates and taxes due to City Hall until the matter is resolved.
M&CC’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Royston King, told this newspaper last November 17 that the Council does not have the money to pay its outstanding GPL bills.
“As it stands now, we just don’t have the money to pay according to reports from the Treasury Department. We don’t have that kind of money to pay, given the fact that we have to honour our responsibilities to our garbage collectors, drainage contractors, other utilities, and to employees,” King said.
He opined that, should GPL be willing to pay its outstanding amount at City Hall, then the Council would be in a better position to pay GPL.
“We’ve been saying repeatedly that we’re working on a very narrow revenue base, 80% of which is the collection of taxes; and when we don’t get big businesses paying their rates, it puts us on a spot.”
“When companies such as GPL do not pay their general rates or honour their civic responsibilities, it affects our ability to honour our financial obligations, including paying GPL,” he continued.
King offered that since City Hall, as well as GPL, is responsible for providing critical services to the city, a good partnership should be established so that workable solutions may be reached.
The departments currently without electricity include the City Engineer’s Department which covers the areas where applications for building plans are processed, the Mayor’s Office, which houses that of the PRO, and the Personnel and Information Technology departments.
GDF, relatives working on retrieving pork-knocker’s body from Kaieteur gorge
By Michel Outridge
The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) team, accompanied by relatives of the city pork-knocker whose body was seen at the bottom of the Kaieteur gorge has reached the area and are making arrangements to get the body out.
Reports are that this operation is difficult for the soldiers since the body is among some rocks some 600 feet away from the bottom of the Falls.
It entails going through secondary jungle, unforgiving falls and rapids.
Rennie Michael Lesile, 36, of 328 West Ruimveldt, Georgetown, was last seen on November 29, 2009 in the Potaro area in a canoe on his way to his mining camp.
He reportedly encountered difficulties and it is believed that he may have drowned although he was a relatively good swimmer.
He had reportedly left his camp to take out someone to the airstrip and was on his way back accompanied by his dog when tragedy struck.
His body was spotted between some rocks and there was no sign of the dog.
On November 9 last, 23-year-old Aliya Bulkan during a tour of Kaieteur National Park, jumped to her death from the Kaieteur escarpment. Her body was recovered by the GDF days later. Father and son remanded for procuring and running a bawdy house
By Nathalene deFreitas
A man and his son were yesterday remanded to prison for allegedly procuring a female to become a prostitute and for managing and keeping a bawdy house.
Joseph Baker, 58, of 98 Narine Street, Better Hope, and his son Carlos Baker, 35, of the same address, appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson and both pleaded not guilty to the joint charges, which stated that between January 1 and April 27, 2009, they procured a female to become a prostitute, and between the said dates they managed and kept a bawdy house.
Defence Counsel Mr. Vic Puran represented the defendants and stated that the case is an embarrassment to his clients. He said his clients operate a beer garden and the virtual complainant worked as a cleaner.
The lawyer argued that it is a neighbour who is trying to create problems for his clients. He said the neighbour always complains about a noise nuisance coming from the beer garden. He added that his clients are respectable people and are both married.
Puran said the virtual complainant was hired to clean around the business place, and whenever it gets late she would normally spend the night there.
He stated that his clients are not responsible if the virtual complainant chooses to take someone in her room.
However, the investigating officer stated that the defendants hired five Amerindian girls as cleaners. The officer said after the girls began to work they were approached by customers to have sexual intercourse for money; and after they refused, the defendants insisted that they entertain the customers.
The officer stated that the defendants threatened not to pay the girls if they did not do as they were told. The officer further reported that the defendants took $3,000 for a room from the customers.
Police Inspector Stephen Telford, objected to bail and stated that one of the girls reported the matter.
The men were refused bail and the case will be called again on December 9.
Girl, seven, plunges overboard to escape marabuntas
A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD pupil of Abrams Creek Primary School, in Upper Pomeroon, jumped into the Pomeroon River to escape an attack by black marabuntas.
Titian Ramdat was going home from classes in a little canoe, which she and her brother were paddling Thursday afternoon when the swarm pounced on them from in a clump of bushes on the river bank.
The girl said she was stung on the head, face, arms, back and feet and had to jump overboard and duck below the water surface to avoid further stings.
She held on to the boat while under water after her brother advised her to make the leap.
Their mother, Sharon Farose said she is very worried about her daughter’s serious condition although she was treated at Abrams Creek Health Centre. (Rajendra Prabhulall)
Police arrest GDF Lance Corporal, two others, in Essequibo Coast robbery
Three men, including a Guyana Defence Force Lance Corporal, are in police custody following a robbery at Lima, Essequibo Coast yesterday.
Police reported that at about 00:35h, vendor Clairmonte Scott, 55, of Lima, Essequibo Coast, was at home with the front door open when three men entered the building. Two of them were masked while the other wore a toque and they were all armed with handguns.
The three armed men tied up Scott and took him outside during which time an alarm was raised by a relative inside the house. This aroused neighbouring residents who responded and the men escaped.
A report was made to the Anna Regina Police Station, and based on descriptions of the men, ranks of a mobile police patrol who had been alerted observed three men walking along the Reliance Public Road, Essequibo Coast. As the police approached, the men scattered in different directions. One of them was caught.
He was subsequently identified by the victim as the assailant who was wearing the toque and was later found to be a Lance Corporal of the GDF, based at Maria’s Lodge, Essequibo Coast. The toque was found in his pocket.
Later, ranks of the mobile police patrol challenged two men who were walking along the Columbia Public Road and who attempted to escape on seeing the police. They were arrested. One of them was seen hiding an object by a fence. This proved to be a black jersey, inside of which were an unlicensed .32 Ruger revolver with four live rounds and a mask.
Ex-cop remanded on attempted rape, indecent assault charges
A former policeman was yesterday remanded to prison for allegedly attempting to rape a Brazilian national and indecently assaulting her.
Lenox King (no address given) appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson and pleaded not guilty to the charges which stated that on November 22, he attempted to rape a Brazilian woman, and on November 6, he indecently assaulted the same person.
Attorney-at-law Mr. Patrice Henry represented the defendant and requested reasonable bail. He said his client was recently dismissed from the force and is presently in a financial crisis.
The lawyer said the least the court can do is grant his client bail so that he can defend himself at the trial.
However, Police Inspector Mr. Stephen Telford objected to bail and stated that the ex-cop misused his powers as a police officer. He said facts relating to the case stated that the virtual complainant and the defendant were friends and he took the virtual complainant at a building on Church Street where he indecently assaulted her.
The prosecutor said the defendant also attempted to rape the virtual complainant. He said the file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the prosecution is ready to commence an early trial.
King was refused bail and the case will be called again on December 8.
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