MoBay pastor on rape charge to stand trial in November
Published:Wednesday | May 17, 2023 | 12:22 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
JASON ROSE, the St James pastor accused of raping a teenage girl in 2021, will stand trial in the St James Circuit Court on November 27, along with his wife and the mother of the complainant.
Rose, his wife Kehmi Rose, and the complainant’s mother, were given the trial date and had their bails extended when they appeared together in court last Friday, May 12.
The court also vacated a bench warrant, which had previously been issued for the complainant’s mother, whose name is being withheld to protect the child’s identity. The woman had failed to appear in court when the case was last mentioned on May 5, but she subsequently made herself available before the court sometime later.
In addition to Jason Rose’s rape charge, the three defendants are all charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
However, there have been few additional details released regarding the in-camera matter since the three defendants had their case transferred from the St James Parish Court to the St James Circuit Court on September 27, 2021.
In the case against Jason Rose, on May 28, 2021, the complainant, who was 15 at the time, reported that she had been raped by the pastor on his church’s compound, where she had gone to use the facility’s Internet for an educational project.
Following the pastor’s arrest and charge, Kehmi Rose and the girl’s mother were arrested and charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and breaching the Child Care and Protection Act.
The allegations against the two women are that on June 10, 2021, the victim and her mother visited the offices of the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offices and Child Abuse to give a statement that the child’s initial rape accusation against the pastor was not true.
MOTHER ARRESTED
While being interviewed, the complainant reportedly explained that she was being forced to give the second statement by her mother, the accused pastor, and the pastor’s wife for the case to be dropped. The complainant’s mother was arrested on that day, and Kehmi Rose was arrested the following day, June 11.
Jason Rose first appeared before the St James Parish Court on June 14, 2021, where he was offered bail in the sum of $300,000 on the rape charge. However, he was remanded two days later, on June 16, in relation to an additional charge of perverting the course of justice, which the women were also charged with when they first appeared in court on that date.
All three defendants were denied bail at that time regarding the perversion of justice charge out of concern that they would interfere with the complainant. A gag order was also imposed on the court by presiding parish judge Sasha Ashley concerning the case’s details.