March date for cops in Kamoza Clarke case

WESTERN BUREAU:

Sergeant Derrick Henry and district constables Alwayne Eccleston and Onecko Brown, who are all facing manslaughter charges arising from the 2014 beating death of Kamoza Clarke, are now slated to reappear before the Trelawny Circuit Court on March 8.

The trio were given the new court date and had their bail extended when they appeared before High Court Justice Leighton Pusey in their latest appearance on Monday.

The new date was given to allow for case management to be carried out, in order for the attorneys in the matter to determine what evidence will be agreed on by the prosecution and the defence team in the upcoming trial.

Henry, Eccleston and Brown were charged in connection to the death of Clarke, who succumbed to injuries he sustained in a brutal beating while in custody at the Falmouth police lock-up in Trelawny on October 20, 2013. The three lawmen were initially charged with murder, but the charge was later reduced to manslaughter in the Trelawny Parish Court.

According to reports, Clarke, a mentally challenged man who lived at Bunker's Hill in Trelawny, was beaten into a vegetative state while in custody on a charge of malicious destruction of property. He died four months later, on February 25, 2014, while in intensive care at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay, St James. He was 31 years old at the time of his death.

Clarke's beating and subsequent death sparked outrage from human-rights advocates, including Families Against State Terrorism, and Amnesty International.

Two other policemen, district constables Desmond Lawrence and Tristan Turner, were charged with neglect of duty in the same matter. Their case is still before the Trelawny Parish Court.