Judge wants written submissions in Mario Deane case

WESTERN BUREAU:

The attorneys representing the three police officers charged in relation to the beating death of Mario Deane are slated to make written submissions in the case before the matter returns to court on September 14.

When the case came up for mention in the St James Parish Court last week, presiding judge Sandria Wong-Small gave the new court date. The police personnel are Corporal Elaine Stewart and district constables Juliana Clevon and Marlon Grant, who were charged in the aftermath of the incident.

During last week's hearing, judge Wong-Small instructed the lawyers that they should make their submissions to the court in writing by August 14, one month prior to the next mention date. She has extended the defendants' bail until September 14.

The judge's instruction was given against the background of the ongoing issues with witnesses failing to appear before the court to give evidence on past occasions, which has resulted in the prosecution electing to close its case.

Charges against inmates

Stewart, Clevon and Grant are charged with manslaughter, misconduct in a public office, and perverting the course of justice arising from allegations that they were on duty at the time when Mario Deane was beaten by other inmates in a cell at the Barnett Street police lock-up in Montego Bay on August 3, 2014.

Deane, who was beaten into a state of unconsciousness, died three days after the incident in the Cornwall Regional Hospital. He had not regained consciousness at the time of his death.

In the case of Stewart, the most senior of the police trio, it is alleged that she gave instructions for the cell in which the fatal beating took place to be cleaned before the arrival of investigators from the Independent Commission of Investigations.