Cops charged for Kamoza Clarke's death for court next February

WESTERN BUREAU:
The three policemen on manslaughter charges for the 2014 death of Kamoza Clarke are to reappear in court on February 21, 2019 when their case will undergo a plea and case management hearing.
 
Sergeant Derrick Henry and district constables, Alwayne Eccleston and Onecko Brown, were given the new court date when they appeared before High Court Judge Carol Beswick today.
 
This will be the second plea and case management hearing that the defendants will undergo since their matter first came before the circuit court on November 6, 2017. A similar hearing was previously scheduled on June 13 for the attorneys to agree on what evidence would be presented during the three cops’ trial.
 
During the June 13 hearing before High Court Judge Carolyn Tie, defence attorneys Chumu Parris and Cadene Coleman had requested the notes of the parish court judge, Ruth Lawrence, who had ordered the case to be transferred from the Trelawny Parish Court to the circuit court. It is not clear if that request has since been granted.
 
Henry, Eccleston and Brown had previously been charged with murder when their case was brought before the parish court. The charges were subsequently reduced to manslaughter by Lawrence on September 15, 2017, before she transferred the case to the circuit court.
 
Two other policemen, district constables Desmond Lawrence and Tristan Turner, were charged with neglect of duty in relation to the case. Their matter is still before the parish court.
 
Kamoza Clarke, who lived at Bunkers Hill in Trelawny and was mentally challenged, was brutally beaten on October 20, 2013 while in custody on a charge of malicious destruction of property. He fell into a coma and died 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.

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