Gang accused pleads guilty to assaulting cop in court brawl
Published:Friday | July 22, 2022 | 12:13 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
One of the alleged Clansman-One Don gangsters who assaulted a police constable during a brawl on the Supreme Court compound in February is to be sentenced in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on December 14.
Twenty-two-year-old Tareek ‘CJ’ James pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm and unlawful wounding.
The alleged bodyguard for reputed gang leader Andre ‘Blackman’ Bryan was also accused of assaulting and wounding a woman corporal, but he pleaded not guilty.
His co-accused, Fabian ‘Crocs’ Johnson, who was similarly charged, also pleaded not guilty.
The court heard that on February 7, police officers were placing both men inside the prisoner’s truck when they refused to go into the cell.
The alleged gangsters reportedly started behaving boisterously and then attacked and hit the complainants in their necks, faces, and on their hands.
The injured officers were taken to the Kingston Public Hospital for treatment.
The accused, along with others who are on trial, were being transported to their respective facilities after the day’s proceedings when the uproar occurred.
Video footage of the incident showed a rowdy group of men hurling bottles and stones at the officers.
But James, while admitting that he had hit one of the police officers, said he reacted after he was assaulted.
ASKED NOT TO SIT AT FRONT
He told Parish Judge Maxine Dennis-McPherson that a week before the incident, he received a blow to one of his ears, and as a result, had asked the policeman not to place him in a cell close to the front of the vehicle, where the sound from the horn would affect him.
At the time when he made the request, James said the truck was practically empty, and the officer told him, “It’s not wa unuh want”.
James said he explained his reason for wanting to be placed in a cell that was close to the back of the truck, but the officer insisted that he go into the front cell, and he refused.
As a result, he said the officer shoved him into the cell and slammed his head into the grille, causing an injury that bled.
“A so now mi thump offa him ‘cause mi defend miself,” he said, while noting that he, too, was treated at the hospital.
According to him, he was the only one who attacked the lawman.
“This man did not do anything. He was just cuffed with me,” James said of his co-accused.
“Let this man talk for himself,” the judge said in reply.
Johnson’s lawyer, Evan Evans, however, told the court that he was a victim of circumstances.
In the meantime, the judge ordered that the medical records be collected by October 12 and requested James’ criminal record.
She also ordered a social enquiry report.
After the dates were fixed, James requested an earlier sentencing date while complaining that he has been in custody since 2018 and was getting frustrated.
But the judge, while pointing out that his lengthy detainment was not in relation to this matter, told him that she had to await a social enquiry report.
Both men were remanded.