Coke in cream: The magistracy opens its 2016 innings

Jan 26, 2016 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The New Year is with us and in Guyana don’t hold your breath about changes. I plan to do a column on the traffic signals that are outside where I live. That spot is one of the busiest junctions in the whole of Guyana. The PPP regime couldn’t get them to work. The APNU-AFC Government is finding it impossible to get them lighted.
I get headaches each night from UG Road to cross over the Railway Embankment to get to my home which is about a minute drive. I will use that road this evening and the confusion will scare me so wish me luck tonight. And wish me luck as I traverse this dangerous spot so I can live to see Guyana celebrates 50 years of Independence. Let’s return to the magistracy in this brand new year.
A lady at the airport was about to travel. She handed over to airport security two bottles of crème liqueur. She said that it was given to her to take out but she was suspicious. She named the giver. He was arrested. When the man’s trial came up, four witnesses testified; three police/CANU officials who conducted the investigations and another lady. The other lady was the sister of the recipient. The recipient did not testify because she was out of Guyana. Her sister took the stand on her behalf saying that she saw when the man gave her sister the cream. The man at the trial denied ever doing so.
What is interesting about this case, is that the police accepted the statement of the traveler and arrested the giver. The police presented the sister of the chief witness when they could not find the chief witness. I have my opinion on this case but I only highlighted it here because of the Robb Street granny murder trial.
Follow the deportment of the police. The traveler said “John Singh” handed her the cream. “John Singh” claimed she lied. The police believed the traveler, charged the cream-giver and he got convicted by one of our learned magistrates. One of the accused in the granny murder trial named a real person belonging to a prominent business who imports vehicles and sells spares but the police never looked him over.
The magistrate in question is not Alex Moore, Ann McClennan or Judy Latchman. It is my opinion that these three magistrates need to have an independent panel review their work. It is my opinion that their judicial learning could be seriously challenged. I doubt that will happen because after all, this is Guyana where Donald Trump would come across better than some of the powerful people we have in our midst. And this is Guyana where there will be the largest pyrotechnical display in the world as we celebrate 50 years of Independence.
I am not going to identify the magistrate suffice it to say, I did name her in one of my columns when I was in her court to monitor a case and she asked her orderly to instruct me to remove my glasses. I refused. I didn’t see the legality or propriety in the request. I am still puzzled why she wanted me to take off my spectacles through which I see the world.
I spent five years in the High Court with the Jagdeo libel trial and testified with the same spectacles and was never asked to remove it.
The magistrate in question is not Anita Singh. But I saw that Ms. Singh made an interesting decision last week. A boatman was charged with fishing without a licence. He pleaded poverty but was convicted and fined, $100,000. In this country you can be found guilty for dangerous driving and pay $7,000.
Naturally, poverty is no excuse to break the law but the law many times is an ass as we all know from time to time. So the magistracy has gone out to bat as 2016 begins its life. What will the scoreboard of jail time be like? But what about the Judicial Service Commission (JSC)? What changes are expected in that area?
Why is a trade unionist that the Guyana Power and Light has made a serious complaint against still on the JSC? More importantly, why is JSC the sole custodian of public information as it relates to the public work of the Commission? And I am not talking about confidential papers. I was advised not to publicly name the magistrate whose application for judgeship was rejected because that is highly confidential JSC matters. Why her name cannot be revealed?
Every day we read about who applied for this and that and didn’t get it.

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Coke in cream: The magistracy opens its 2016 innings

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