‘Killer’ drivers still buying their way out of jail

Oct 15, 2018 News

---

 

How much is a life worth?
Five million dollars? Six hundred thousand? Half of this figure?
Despite concerns, the disturbing trend continues in which some reckless drivers are still being allowed to give monetary compensation to families to avoid jail time.
They are making financial compensation with the full knowledge of the police, attorneys, and officials in the judicial system. The accused drivers who seek to make these payments to avoid prison range from civilians to policemen.
Some ‘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 had recalled. “When I hear the news I did not believe it.”
But after that, Mr. Azeez had a change of heart.
Azeez had said that he agreed to a financial settlement with relatives of the accused driver, Mahendranauth Singh.
“The people came to an 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.

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, had 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 later admitted 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 was a photograph of little Alecia with the words “Love me, but let me go.”
Despite her strong Christian faith, Mrs. Constantine admitted 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. Dodson 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. 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 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, a relative of the accused later informed Kaieteur News that Harding’s relatives had agreed to a financial settlement.
The relatives declined to confirm this, although a male relative told this newspaper that “the child done dead and the matter finished.”

$2.5M for family with eight children
Security guard Ronville Roberts, of Kuru Kururu, was cycling along the Soesdyke/Linden highway near his home in January, 2012, when Sahid Ali, who was driving motor lorry GLL 319, reversed and crushed him.
Police alleged that the 29-year-old accused drove off, leaving the injured man on the roadway. He reportedly abandoned the truck about four miles from the scene.
Sahid Ali was subsequently identified and charged with causing death by dangerous driving and failing to render assistance. He was represented by Attorney-at-law Vic Puran.
But when he appeared in the Providence magistrates’ Court a few days later
before Magistrate Leslie Sobersm Ali’s attorney, Vic Puran, disclosed that his client had agreed to give Roberts’s family $2.5M.
The court was also told that the accused had already made an initial payment of $200,000 to the dead guard’s family.
In the presence of the court, Ali then handed over a further $500,000 to the dead man’s reputed wife, Ingrid Schmidt. Puran also requested copies of the case dockets, which he said he would hand over to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Ali, who had been placed on remand and appeared in court in handcuffs, was then released on $100,000 bail.
And that was the end of the matter.
The victim, 58-year-old Ronville Roberts, was survived by eight children. The youngest was said to be about 11 years old.
Later, some of the children is to receive a final $300,000 in court next Friday. But now the children have indicated that the sum cannot compensate for their father’s death.
A daughter of the dead man told Kaieteur News on Friday that the family has to sign a document indicating that they will not pursue the matter in court. According to the daughter, she and her siblings want a further $1.3M before they sign any agreement.
The sister said that they plan to take legal action if the accused fails to make the further payment.
“Let them give us $1.3 more; we still have small children to send to school,” the daughter said. “If they don’t want to pay we will sue.”
She said that two of the victim’s eight children still attend school and their mother is unemployed.
A son of the victim expressed the view that the sum being offered was insignificant, given that a man had been killed.
“The $2.5M is not enough for a man’s life. If they (the other siblings) want to sue for more, then I am with them.”
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.
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.”

---

---