Absent DNA report stalls trial of businessman on drug charge
Published:Saturday | October 8, 2022 | 12:06 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Oral Johnson, the businessman who was arrested in April after reportedly being held with over 19 pounds of cocaine in Coral Gardens, St James, is to return to the St James Parish Court on November 1 after his highly anticipated trial failed to get under way on Thursday.
Johnson, a 45-year-old restaurant and bar operator of a Westmoreland address, had been scheduled to stand trial on charges of possession, dealing, taking steps to export, and trafficking of 19lbs, 10.98 ounces of cocaine. But, as the trial was about to start, Johnson’s attorney Henry McCurdy told the court that he had not been given a copy of a requested DNA report that was needed to complete the defence’s file for the trial.
“We are not ready, as the Crown had asked for a DNA report. The DNA was done and it was not returned. We are asking and pressing that the DNA be produced before we proceed to trial,” McCurdy argued. “We are five months into this case, and the order was made [for the DNA report] and it was not done. We think it is not fair for our client to go to trial without the DNA being done.”
“Some disclosure [of documents] has been prepared and it has been served …. This is something that forms part of the case against him [Johnson], whether it helps the prosecution or not, the defence is entitled to have it,” Parish Judge Sasha Ashley replied.
The court was subsequently told that arrangements were to be made for Johnson to be swabbed in order to compare his DNA with samples which were reportedly taken from the confiscated drug allegedly found in his possession.
The presiding judge then reset the case for mention on November 1 and extended Johnson’s bail.
The allegations are that, on April 28, a police team observed Johnson sitting in a parked vehicle in the Coral Gardens community for approximately 20 minutes. When approached by the police, Johnson gave conflicting explanations as to why he was in the area, following which his vehicle was searched and nine packages with the cocaine reportedly found.
Johnson’s arrest occurred at the same time that the police, who were also conducting an operation in Coral Gardens, seized US$3.8 million and CDN$30,000 – valued at a combined J$60 million – at a house. A woman was arrested in Westmoreland in connection with both seizures, and the police subsequently named Presley ‘Pressa’ Bingham, of Torado Drive in St James, as a person of interest in connection with the investigations.
Following the Coral Gardens operation, Assistant Commissioner of Police Clifford Chambers indicated that the investigations would become international, as they extend to other jurisdictions beyond Jamaica’s borders. However, he did not state at that time which international jurisdictions would be included in the probe.
Chambers also revealed that the United States had made an extradition request in 2005 for the owner of the house where the money was found.