Feb 28 committal hearing continuation for cop whose baby died in car
Published:Thursday | January 26, 2023 | 12:21 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
DETECTIVE SERGEANT Sheldon Dobson, the policeman whose infant daughter died after being locked in his car at the Black River Police Station last January, will have to wait until February 28 to know whether he will stand trial in the St Elizabeth Circuit Court.
Dobson, who is charged with manslaughter in relation to the child’s death, was informed of the new court date after his committal hearing was partially completed in the St Elizabeth Parish Court on Tuesday, January 24. He also had his bail extended.
In providing a brief update on Tuesday’s hearing, Dobson’s lawyer Thomas Levine told The Gleaner that the February 28 date was selected in order to allow for a full completion of the committal proceedings.
“We started today (Tuesday), but we are not finished with the process. The matter continues on February 28, as we were not able to complete the process, so it was part heard and adjourned for continuation,” said Levine.
“We expect that on February 28, the proceedings will be completed and the judge will make a decision as to whether the case should be committed to the Circuit Court,” Levine added.
Presiding parish judge Roderick Smith has been overseeing the hearings in Dobson’s case up to this point.
The allegations against Dobson are that on January 18, 2022, he was expected to take his daughter to daycare, but he forgot to do so and went to work at the Black River Police Station at 8:00 that morning, leaving the child in his car.
The infant was found unconscious in the car hours later, at 4 p.m., and was rushed to the Black River Hospital where she was subsequently pronounced dead.
It is understood that while the child was normally left in the care of her grandmother, she was enrolled in daycare after the elderly woman fell ill.
Dobson was tasked with dropping the child off at daycare on the day of her death.
The child’s parents are both employed to the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).
Immediately following the child’s death, relatives and friends of the family declared their support for the parents, while insisting that Dobson would not have deliberately left his daughter in the car.
In February 2022, one month after the tragedy took place, a file was sent by the JCF to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for a ruling on whether Dobson should be charged in relation to the child’s death. That ruling came in June 2022, when the DPP declared that Dobson should be charged.
Dobson made his first appearance before the St Elizabeth Parish Court’s Santa Cruz on August 15, where he was granted bail in the sum of $750,000 with surety.