Kamoza Clarke's case drags on - Management hearing set for June 1

WESTERN BUREAU:

The three policemen, who are charged with manslaughter in relation to the death of Kamoza Clarke - a mentally challenged Trelawny resident - had their bail extended until June 1 when they appeared in the Trelawny Circuit Court yesterday. When the three policemen return to court on that date, a case management hearing will take place on the matter against them.

Sergeant Derrick Henry and district constables Alwayne Eccleston and Onecko Brown were charged following Clarke's death on February 25, 2014. Four months earlier, on October 20, 2013, he was beaten into vegetative state while in custody at the Falmouth police lock-up.

In court yesterday, Henry's lawyer, Clifton Gordon, told presiding High Court Justice Leighton Pusey that the defence lawyers and the prosecution were to have further dialogue concerning case management to agree on what evidence would be presented during the policemen's upcoming trial.

Kamoza Clarke, 31, who lived at Bunkers Hill in Trelawny, was brutally beaten while in custody on a charge of malicious destruction of property. He died without regaining consciousness while under intensive care at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay. Clarke's beating and subsequent death sparked outrage from human-rights advocates, including Families Against State Terrorism and Amnesty International.