Cops in Mario Deane case to stand trial today, subpoenas issued for inmates' doctors

Christopher Thomas, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:
The three police personnel implicated in the October 2014 death of inmate Mario Deane are scheduled to go on trial in the St James Circuit Court today.

They are Corporal Elaine Stewart, 50; District Constable Marlon Grant, 27; and 32-year-old District Constable Juliana Clevon.

All three are charged with manslaughter, perverting the course of justice and misconduct in a public office.

Meanwhile, the case against the inmates charged with Deane's murder is to resume on October 4.

Yesterday, presiding High Court Justice Sharon George issued subpoenas for the doctors who examined inmates Marvin Orr and Adrian Morgan to appear in court on that date.

Orr and Morgan have been charged with Deane's murder.

During the hearing, which coincided with the opening of the Michaelmas term of the Circuit Court, it was disclosed that while psychiatric reports had been submitted for Orr and Morgan, who both suffer from mental challenges, there was a disagreement between the doctors and the defendants' lawyers as to whether the reports adequately addressed the men's mental state at the time of Deane's death.

In August 2014, Deane, 31, was beaten into a coma while he was in custody at the Barnett Street police lock-up in Montego Bay where he had been arrested and charged with possession of a ganja spliff.

He died in hospital three days later.

Orr and Morgan, who were also being held in custody at Barnett Street, were subsequently arrested and charged along with a third inmate, Damion Cargill.

Last July, Cargill was judged as being unfit to answer to the charges or to stand trial and was released by the court into his family's custody.

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