Cop charged for daughter’s death gets new court date
Published:Friday | July 28, 2023 | 12:08 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The trial of Detective Sergeant Sheldon Dobson, the policeman who is facing a manslaughter charge in relation to the death of his infant daughter, was put off until December 14 when he appeared in the St Elizabeth Circuit Court in Black River yesterday.
Dobson, who was without the service of a lawyer when he appeared in court yesterday, was given a new court date and had his bail extended until his next court hearing.
“The matter is set for December 14, for Mr Dobson to settle his legal representation,” attorney-at-law Thomas Levine, who previously represented the policeman, told The Gleaner following yesterday’s brief court hearing before presiding Justice Vaughn Smith.
Levine, who represented Dobson during his committal hearings, which took place in the St Elizabeth Parish Court on January 24 and February 28 this year, said the prosecution’s case file is ready for the start of Dobson’s trial.
The allegations against Dobson are that, on January 18, 2022, he was expected to take his one-year-old daughter to daycare, but he forgot to do so and went to work at the Black River Police Station at 8:00 that morning with the child still in his car.
The infant was found unconscious in the car at about 4 p.m. She was rushed to the Black River Hospital where she subsequently died.
According to reports, the child would normally be left in the care of her grandmother but, because the grandmother fell ill, a decision was taken to send her to a daycare. Dobson was the one tasked to take the child to the daycare. The day she died would have been her third day at the daycare.
Like Dobson, the child’s mother is also a serving member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).
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, 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 back in June 2022 with an order that Dobson should be charged.
Dobson’s case first came before the St Elizabeth Parish Court in Santa Cruz on August 15, where he was granted bail in the sum of $750,000 with surety.