Bail fury!
Law officers fume as Sykes offers bail to accused due to delay in key reports
Published:Sunday | October 15, 2023 | 12:10 AMLivern Barrett - Senior Staff Reporter
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An off-duty policeman was standing outside his St Catherine home on a dark September night last year when Michael Smith and another man allegedly confronted him with loaded guns and an ominous order. Smith was carrying a shotgun, while the other...
An off-duty policeman was standing outside his St Catherine home on a dark September night last year when Michael Smith and another man allegedly confronted him with loaded guns and an ominous order.
Smith was carrying a shotgun, while the other man, Rajae Walker, was armed with a pistol when they surprised the cop outside his home about 11:45 p.m. on September 24, 2022, the cop claimed in a statement to police investigators about the incident.
Four months before that alleged encounter, Smith was released from prison on parole after serving eight years for shooting a man to death in west Kingston when he was 15 years old.
The off-duty policeman claimed that Smith yelled, “[expletive deleted], don’t move!” moments before he and Walker unleashed a barrage of bullets in his direction, setting off a fierce exchange of gunfire.
When the shooting ended, Smith was found lying on the road with one of his eyes shattered by a bullet and the bloodstained shotgun beside him, the cop claimed.
He was arrested and later charged with illegal possession of firearm and shooting with intent and has been in custody since. A DNA test was also conducted to determine whether investigators could place him at the scene.
But last Monday, Smith and Walker were offered bail in the Gun Court Division of the High Court by Chief Justice Bryan Sykes, who, according to multiple persons present, appeared annoyed by delays in producing their DNA reports.
Details of Smith’s conviction were reportedly disclosed in court by prosecutors.
According to one person present, the chief justice suggested that the off-duty cop should be directed to “ask the forensic lab” if he had any questions about why his alleged attackers were granted bail.
Amid strong objections by prosecutors and without a bail application, Smith was granted bail in the sum of $400,000 and was ordered to report to the police every day, his attorney Vincent Wellesley confirmed to The Sunday Gleaner.
He was also ordered not to leave his home between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Smith had not taken up the bail offer up to Friday because he is unable to come up with the funds, Wellesley disclosed.
CRITICISM FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT
Smith is among more than a dozen persons charged with gun-related crimes who were offered bail by Chief Justice Sykes in recent weeks because of similar delays with forensic reports, law enforcement officials told The Sunday Gleaner last week.
In July, he dismissed nearly three dozen cases in the Trelawny Circuit Court that were related to the deadly lottery scam because of long wait times for reports from the police’s Communication, Forensics and Cybercrime Division.
But it was Sykes’ latest actions that triggered a firestorm of criticism across the law enforcement community, several officers expressing their frustration but declining to go on record.
“He was just granting bail left, right and centre, even when the people dem never apply for bail,” fumed one law enforcement operative to The Sunday Gleaner last week.
“The chief justice has bodyguards ‘round him everywhere him go, but what about the safety of the citizens who he is unleashing these people on?” lamented one police investigator, who asked not to be named.
Chief prosecutor Paula Llewellyn called the stance by the chief justice “very unfortunate”, but declined to comment further when pressed by The Sunday Gleaner.
The Sunday Gleaner sought responses from Chief Justice Sykes via questions submitted to the Court Administration Division (CAD) last Tuesday.
CAD confirmed receipt of the questions on Thursday, but there was no response up to late yesterday.
“We are doing our best to have same sent soonest,” the agency said in an emailed response.
Smith’s attorney has thrown his support behind the head of the Jamaican judiciary, saying he believes that Chief Justice Sykes was “sending a message”.
“In other words, move with a little more dispatch, please. If more judges behaved that way, the prosecution would be more mindful of these things,” Wellesley told The Sunday Gleaner.
FORENSIC LAB UNDER RESOURCED
The country’s high crime rate and a chronic staff shortage have left forensic officers at the Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine – widely known as the forensic lab – swamped, said its executive director Dr Judith Mowatt.
The institute is the sole Government-owned forensic facility in Jamaica and is mandated by law to examine physical evidence collected by law enforcement authorities at crime scenes across all 14 parishes.
As an example, its DNA department, comprising five forensic officers and an assistant, received 19,941 samples collected in 9,621 cases for testing last year, Mowatt disclosed during an interview with The Sunday Gleaner last Thursday.
In a “simple and straightforward” case such as sexual assault, a DNA analysis typically takes up to two weeks, she revealed.
More complex cases like Smith’s can take up to eight weeks.
“Because of the climate that we live in and sometimes the time taken to recover and submit the evidence, a lot of DNA samples often reach us degraded. So, it involves a more time-consuming protocol to extract the DNA and produce a profile,” Mowatt explained.
She lamented, “There is no scenario on earth where five people can adequately manage this volume of work. But I have five.”
The institute’s biology department, which handles offences against the person cases such as sexual assaults, received 25,188 exhibits collected in 6,586 cases last year. It is staffed by a 25-member team, including 11 forensic officers, three chief forensic officers, and assistants hired on contracts.
In total, there are just over 80 forensic officers employed to the institute, which, according to Mowatt, is 40 per cent below what is required to adequately manage its operations.
“So, I am not sure how the chief justice has decided that they can work harder and faster without being cognisant of all the facts and the mitigating circumstances,” Mowatt argued.
The head of the forensic lab said following a series of reviews, the institute is now preparing to make a case to the finance ministry for “a significant increase” in the number of personnel and posts in critical departments “so we can hire the manpower needed to cope with this volume of work”.
In the meantime, the Institute of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine has put measures in place “to meet the needs of our stakeholders”.
“So, if the court knows, for example, that a date has been set for December, we encourage stakeholders to tell us, because, as you can see from the sheer volume of work coming in and the number of staff I have, we have to prioritise,” Mowatt explained.