‘Killer’ drivers paying to stay out of jail

Aug 22, 2010 News

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By Michael Jordan
How much is a child’s life worth?
Five million dollars? $600,000? Half of this figure?
All of the above, it seems.
A three-month Kaieteur News investigation has unearthed a disturbing trend in which drivers from affluent families are forking out millions—and in some cases a mere pittance—to avoid being hauled off to jail for killing innocent children on the country’s roadways.
They are making financial compensation to the grieving parents of those they have killed, with the full knowledge of the police, attorneys, and some top officials in the judicial system.
In exchange, they are going scot-free. Kaieteur News has unearthed at least seven such cases. In the court cases uncovered, six of the victims were children between the ages of seven and 17 years old. A seventh case involved a young mother.
All the families, except one, admitted to having accepted money from the families of the errant drivers.
The ‘compensation packages’ range from $5M for the death of the young mother, $600,000 for the death of an eight-year-old girl, and $300,000 for a seven-year-old girl killed on a pedestrian crossing.
The accused drivers were all before the courts on causing death by dangerous driving charges. The matters were immediately dropped after the payments were made. Two of the accused were hit-and run drivers. Two were allegedly under the influence of alcohol.

COUSINS KILLED
On August 16, 2009, one such hit-and-run driver snuffed out the lives of two small children on the Tuschen Market Road, East Bank Essequibo.
Seven-year-old Amisha Alli and her 12-year-old cousin, Ricky Kumar Persaud were heading to a mosque with their grandmother, Hamidan Haq, when a speeding car struck the two cousins.
Amisha Alli was struck so hard that her head was ripped clean off. Her cousin also died on the spot. Ignoring the mangled children on the roadway, the driver, 21-year-old Mahendranauth Singh, a mechanic of Lot 202 Industry Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara, continued on his journey.
Heading east, he drove past the Leonora Police Station before police at Den Amstel, West Coast Demerara, eventually nabbed him at a roadblock.
A few days later, Singh appeared in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court, where he was charged with two separate charges of causing death by dangerous driving, another of failing to render assistance to injured persons and another of failing to stop after an accident.
He was remanded to prison on the grounds that he was a flight risk and the case was transferred to the Leonora Magistrate’s Court.
On August 25, 2009, as the victims’ relatives and friends protested outside the court, Magistrate Judy Latchman placed Singh on bail in the sum of $500, 000 for each of the causing death charges and $50, 000 each for the failing to stop and failing to render assistance charges.
The dead girl’s father, Abdool Azeez, was overseas when his daughter was killed. He returned to Guyana and was at the centre of the protests on the day that the accused was granted bail. It was he who buried both children.
“I spoke to her (on the phone) 20 minutes before she died,” he recalled. “When I hear the news I did not believe it.”
But since then, Mr. Azeez appears to have had a change of heart.
In an interview with Kaieteur News last week, Azeez said that he has agreed to a financial settlement with relatives of the accused driver,
Mahendranauth Singh.
“The people came to agreement for settlement with me. I just hope and pray that she rests in peace.”
“I got a big heart and I forgive he. He went to my house. I forgive he…I got a son and maybe if he do something wrong somebody might forgive he (too).”
“I told him that he got to be more careful next time. I said, ‘I won’t put a penalty on you, but you will always remember what you did.’”
He explained that one reason for agreeing to the compensation was to avoid the prolonged agony of a court case. But they still grieve deeply. Amisha’s death anniversary passed quietly last Monday.
“I did not put it (the memoriam) on TV because of the memories. When we remember her we grieve for weeks.”
The couple now has a baby son, and Azeez said that the baby is helping his wife to cope somewhat with the loss.

Drunk driver kills a promising Schoolboy
The parents of 17-year-old Totaram Persaud had plans for him embarking on a career as a Chemist when he left school.
But on January 2, 2008, the teen was walking with another student on the western side of the Plantain Walk Public Road, when a car driven by an alleged drunk driver struck him from behind.
He was pronounced dead at the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
The accused, 45-year-old Haniff Yusuf of 113 New Road, Vreed-en-Hoop, was charged with causing death by driving in a dangerous manner, while under the influence of alcohol.
He was released on $150,000 bail.
But that case has reportedly come to an abrupt end.
Mavis Persaud, the victim’s mother, told Kaieteur News that relatives of the accused driver visited her home a few days after her son was killed. She said that the family was offered a settlement, which was “more than $600,000”, to which the family eventually agreed.
According to Mrs. Persaud, they visited a Justice of the Peace, who wrote up the agreement in the presence of an attorney for the accused and witnesses.
She said the Magistrate was then informed of the settlement and that was the end of the matter.
Mrs. Persaud now admits to having “some regrets” about the decision, since she is somewhat dissatisfied with the amount of money they eventually received.
“But God will judge who he has to judge. He (the accused) told me that he is sorry… whether he regret or not, he should not have been on the road (in his condition).

$600,000 compensation
for Alecia
Lloyda and Hamlet Constantine never saw the car coming.
It was December 28, 2008, and they were crossing Kidram Street, Vreed-en-Hoop, with their daughter, eight-year-old Alecia Forrester, when something struck Lloyda’s right elbow.
“All I felt was a breeze and I get hit on my right hand (with which she had been holding the eight-year-old). I think: ‘Oh God, Alecia’.”
The car had struck her husband before slamming into Alecia, pitching her several feet away.  The driver did not stop.
Alecia was taken to the West Demerara Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The child’s stepfather was admitted to hospital with injuries to his shoulder.
Meanwhile, the driver, 23-year-old Mahendranauth Singh Zulficar Namdar, a contractor of Lot 76 Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara drove past the Leonora Police Station. He was eventually apprehended at a police road-bock at Den Amstel, West Coast Demerara.
He was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and failing to stop at the scene of an accident.
Namdar was released on $150,000 bail.
According to the dead child’s grandmother, some of Namdar’s relatives visited her home shortly after the tragedy and offered them assistance with the funeral. She said that although she turned them away, the relatives returned after Alecia’s stepfather was released from hospital.
However, she said that the driver’s relatives returned and offered the bereaved family a $600,000 financial settlement. The child’s mother said that they accompanied the family to a Charlotte Street building, where a female attorney drafted the documents for the settlement.
Mrs. Constantine said that a Magistrate was then informed of the agreement and the causing death charge was dropped.
According to Mrs. Constantine, her family was informed that they could have a copy of the documents, but she was too distraught to do so.
“I said (to myself) ‘let it go’. It would have been too much of a reminder of what happened.  I felt that if I got it over with, the pain would be less.
“As a Christian, we depend on God to do justice for us.”
Asked why they had opted for a settlement rather than go through with the trial, Mrs. Constantine admitted that she felt that the law would not have worked in their favour.
“They (the driver’s family) would take a lawyer, they have the money. We don’t have.
“We did not have the money to get a lawyer, and nothing comes out of these things (meaning no confidence in the court).”
In the family’s living room is a photograph of little Alecia with the words “Love me, but let me go.”
Despite her strong Christian faith, Mrs. Constantine admits that letting go is not that easy.
“Sometimes I try to blank it out. I am a Christian and I ask God to strengthen me.”
About two weeks after Alecia’s death, Mrs. Constantine was in a bus when someone told her that they had just seen the accused driving.
“The tears start to flow, knowing that he did something like this and still on the road.”
$300,000 for a dead schoolgirl
Then there is the case of seven-year-old Elizabeth McGowan.
The child and a sister were walking on a pedestrian crossing on the Stanleytown, West Bank Demerara  Public Road in 2007 when a car struck Elizabeth, killing her on the spot.
The 27-year-old West Bank Demerara hire car driver, Jaichan Latchman of 49 Alliance, Canal Number Two was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and released on $100,000 bail.
The child’s grandmother, Agatha Dodson  told Kaieteur News that Latchman’s relatives approached them shortly afterwards to offer a financial settlement.
Ms. Datson said that her family agreed to accept $300,000 as compensation for the dead grand-daughter.
According to Ms. Dodson, the deal was done at a King Street location in the presence of an attorney.
“We come to a settlement, they said that they poor, so we did not fight the issue further.”
She said that even after the settlement was made, the case continued in the Wales Magistrate’s Court. However, after several postponements, they stopped attending.
“We don’t know if the matter finished in court. It’s three years. We were satisfied with the compensation.
“(But) nothing can compensate for the death of a loved one. Even if you get $2M and you build a house. Every time I look at that house I’d say ‘it’s my dead child’s house’.”

Jasmine Harding
On November 30, 2009, a car struck down 14-year-old Jasmine Harding as she was crossing the Bagotville Public Road.
She died nine days later.
The driver, Mohammed Zamrudeen, an overseas-based Guyanese, was arrested but then released from La Grange Police Station on $30,000 station bail.
But Zamrudeen fled the country before charges could be laid against him.
The child’s relatives and irate residents burned tyres in the street when the accused appeared in court.
However, earlier this year, a relative of the accused informed Kaieteur News that Harding’s relatives had agreed to a financial settlement.
The relatives have declined to confirm this, although a male relative told this newspaper that “the child done dead and the matter finished.”
Some bereaved relatives of accident victims repeatedly expressed a lack of faith in the judicial system in incarcerating drivers who have caused the deaths of their loved ones.
They pointed to the frustrating delays in the courts that have caused some matters to drag on for years.
According to Director of Prisons, Dale Erskine, there are only two persons who are at present incarcerated in the country’s penitentiaries for causing death by dangerous driving.
Asked to comment on financial settlements in such cases, a senior official in the judiciary said that the criminal case should proceed despite a settlement.
“You could compromise the civil case (with a financial settlement) but the criminal case can’t be compromised by private settlement,” the official said while speaking under condition of anonymity.
“If they want, they (the parties) could say they don’t want any criminal prosecution. The DPP could consider that they have been fully compensated. There have been cases where people have gone to the DPP. People sometimes opt for settlement when they feel they cannot win the case in court.
“The criminal proceeding can’t be settled like that, you have to go through the legal authorities.
Similar comments were expressed by a retired judge, who also asked not to be identified.
“They can settle but this should not prevent the case from going on,” he said.
“The victims and relatives are entitled to compensation but the perpetrators should face the court. The DPP should decide if the cases should proceed.
They should face prosecution. The same thing is happening in rape cases. The proper thing is for the matter to proceed in court. The police should send the file to the DPP….the matter should proceed unless the DPP withdraws the case.
(But) really speaking, the DPP should not withdraw (the matters). The fact that the driver paid compensation shows the person is guilty. These matters should be proceeded with.”

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