Magistrate Moore recuses self from Bisram case after Chancellor’s intervention

Dec 17, 2019 News

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The Marcus Bisram case took an interesting turn yesterday at the Springlands Magistrate’s Court after Magistrate Alex Moore announced that he was recusing himself from the case. Moore’s decision came after he received a letter from the Chancellor of the Judiciary directing him to recuse himself from the matter.

The proceeding which was scheduled to kick off on the 9th of December was delayed until yesterday after Moore had reported sick. Bisram made his third court appearance yesterday. When the matter was called, State Prosecutrix Stacy Goodings, her assistant from the DPP’s office, Attorney Mandal Moore, and the accused Marcus Bisram were all present, however the defence attorneys Sanjeev Datadin and Dexter Todd were not present, the matter was stood down for a few minutes until they arrived.
At the commencement, Goodings was asked by Magistrate Moore to make disclosures of the statements, but she rose from her seat and declined to do so on the grounds that she received instructions from her office (DPP) for him (Moore) to recuse himself from the matter. She then requested for an adjournment until the Chancellor of the Judiciary had responded.

However, Defence Attorney Sanjeev Datadin arose from his seat and pointed out that they were not informed by the DPP of such a development, and argued that an order of the court was made, and as such “there should be obedience to that order”. He referenced the ruling by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to have the matter conducted “expeditiously” and in that regard “we ask that the order of disclosure be complied with”.
Moore almost immediately said there was a further development and pointed out to the court that he was in receipt of the letter (from the DPP) “forwarded by the Chancellor to me and I was asked to respond”. He added that out of respect, he responded, but while that “internal exercise” was ongoing, the petition filed by Faiyaz Narinedatt’s relatives to the Court of Appeal in Georgetown was also forwarded to him. He stated the reason cited to him was that the petition has become a public issue and, “I was directed by the Chancellor to recuse myself” and “I hereby recuse” from the case.
Moore mentioned briefly that the issue of his conduct was raised in both the petition and letter.
The case was subsequently adjourned for the 13th of January for report at court one (1) in Georgetown, where it will be re-assigned to a court in Berbice thereafter.
Meanwhile, after the matter had concluded, Attorneys Datadin and Todd spoke with members of the media and expressed their disappointment in the abrupt turn the case had taken. Datadin referred to the new development as “magistrate shopping”. He added that he did not notice in any of the media that the defence said in court that “whatever statements you have, we will consent to it being admitted, whatever videos you wish to produce, we will consent to being admitted, whatever photographs you want we will consent to it being admitted because we believe you have no evidence”.
He further mentioned that “there were some sections of the media that said the Magistrate was not raising his voice, I believe it was Kaieteur News…He raised his voice at me two times for me to apologize to Ms. Goodings”.
Attorney Todd then chimed in and questioned “are you saying every time a Magistrate raises his voice then remove them from a case?” He argued that all that was enforced by the Magistrate was in keeping with the law and that, “there is no merit in the complaint, no merit in the Prosecutrix making a complaint to the DPP, and there is no merit in the family making that complaint, and what we are seeing playing out is gonna take a very serious turn in this country”.
He mentioned that they will be moving to call out the Bar Association and noted that the Magistrate was balanced in his approach to the case.
Todd said “I am surprised that the DPP has taken it to this level, I do not like to see what is happening and I do not like to see the open doors that it is making now, because it means that if every family is not pleased with how things are going in court, we are gonna write and we gonna have that magistrate”.
Marcus Brian Bisram was extradited to Guyana and was charged on local shores with counselling, procuring and commanding Harri Paul Parsram, Radesh Motie, Niran Yacoob, Diodath Datt and Orlando Dickie to murder Narinedatt.
At his second court appearance at the Whim Court before Magistrate Alex Moore, a decision was made by Moore to proceed with the matter by way of paper committal and Prosecutrix Stacy Goodings was ordered to have photocopied statements submitted to him on the next court date (9th December).
A site visit was also scheduled to be done and the cross examining of the star witness (on request of the Defence) on the said date. However, Moore reported sick and the matter was called at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court before Magistrate Peter Hugh. The matter was then transferred to Springlands for yesterday after there was a no-show by Prosecutrix Goodings.
Faiyaz Narinedatt was beaten to death and his body dumped on the Number 70 Village public road between October 31st and November 1, 2016.

 

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