Cops charged in Kamoza Clarke case get bail extension.
Published:Wednesday | March 25, 2015 | 12:00 AM
WESTERN BUREAU:
The five policemen facing charges in connection with the death of Kamoza Clarke, the mentally challenged man who died from injuries sustained in a 2013 beating while in police custody, had their bails extended when they appeared in the Clark's Town Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday.
The five policemen are district constables Alwayne Eccleston and Onecko Brown, Sergeant Derrick Henry and constables Desmond Lawrence and Tristan Turner.
Eccleston, Brown and Henry are charged with murder while Lawrence and Turner are charged with neglect of duty.
In yesterday's hearing, Eccle-ston, Brown and Henry had preliminary examinations scheduled, while Lawrence and Turner had a mention date.
lawyer unavailable
However, all five defendants were given the new court date after Turner's attorney, Thomas Levine, told
presiding magistrate Ruth Lawrence that two other attorneys for the defence, Ronald Parris and Oswald Senior-Smith, would not be present at court.
"My colleagues, Mr Parris and Mr Senior-Smith, are unable to be here. They have agreed to a hearing date in the matter ... July 20 is agreed," said Levine.
Subsequently, Lawrence set the hearing date for the case against Eccleston, Brown and Henry on July 20, while the case against Lawrence and Turner was set for mention on that date.
The charges against the five officers stem from allegations that they were involved in an attack on Kamoza Clarke on October 20, 2013, while he was in the lock-up at the Falmouth Police Station. Clarke, who sustained injuries from the beating he received, subsequently died while at hospital.