hiphopanonymous
06-11-08, - 10:00 AM
Alleged Police Brutality Case Heads to Supreme Court:
http://www.jonesbahamas.com/?c=45&a=17346
..."By TOSHEENA ROBINSON-BLAIR
Verona Bastian, grandmother of Desmond Key, holds up his funeral programme outside the Nassau Street courts Tuesday. Key died months after an alleged beating at the hands of police officers. (Photo/Torrell Glinton)
The trial of two Grove Station Police officers charged with beating a young father of six into a comatose state – in which he lingered for seven months before dying – did not get underway as planned in a Magistrate’s Court Tuesday.
In April, the charge against Corporal Donavon Gardiner was upgraded to manslaughter and Constable Tavares Bowleg was charged with abetment to manslaughter in the January 19, 2008 death of Desmond Key.
Originally, Gardiner, 35, of Flamingo Gardens, was charged with causing grievous harm to the 28-year-old man while he was in police custody on June 17, 2007.
Bowleg, 31, of Garden Hills, was originally charged with abetment to grievous harm last August.
Chief counsel in the office of the Attorney General, Vernal Collie, on Tuesday presented Magistrate Guillimina Archer with a Voluntary Bill of Indictment.
That means there will be no Magistrate Court’s preliminary inquiry into the matter. Now it’s expected to head straight to the Supreme Court.
The officers are expected to appear before Acting Justice Elliot Lockhart on June 23.
However, at that time Justice Lockhart is expected to recuse himself from the case and send it onto another judge as his firm, Lockhart and Munroe, represents Gardiner.
Attorney Willie Moss is representing Bowleg.
Key spent seven months in a coma at the Princess Margaret Hospital and Jackson Memorial Hospital following the alleged beating, according to his family.
Since Key died on January 19, Gardiner and Bowleg have been back to court several times to see whether the charges against them would be upgraded.
In February, attorney Murrio Ducille – who was representing Gardiner – excused himself from the case as he had an assistant with a close connection to Key.
The case was delayed further when police prosecutor Barry Miller took himself off the matter and suggested that a lawyer from the attorney general’s office deal with the matter.
On December 18, weeks before Key’s death, Magistrate Janet Bullard stepped down from the case when she identified a potential conflict of interest.
The men remain out on a $10,000 bail each."....
http://www.jonesbahamas.com/?c=45&a=17346
..."By TOSHEENA ROBINSON-BLAIR
Verona Bastian, grandmother of Desmond Key, holds up his funeral programme outside the Nassau Street courts Tuesday. Key died months after an alleged beating at the hands of police officers. (Photo/Torrell Glinton)
The trial of two Grove Station Police officers charged with beating a young father of six into a comatose state – in which he lingered for seven months before dying – did not get underway as planned in a Magistrate’s Court Tuesday.
In April, the charge against Corporal Donavon Gardiner was upgraded to manslaughter and Constable Tavares Bowleg was charged with abetment to manslaughter in the January 19, 2008 death of Desmond Key.
Originally, Gardiner, 35, of Flamingo Gardens, was charged with causing grievous harm to the 28-year-old man while he was in police custody on June 17, 2007.
Bowleg, 31, of Garden Hills, was originally charged with abetment to grievous harm last August.
Chief counsel in the office of the Attorney General, Vernal Collie, on Tuesday presented Magistrate Guillimina Archer with a Voluntary Bill of Indictment.
That means there will be no Magistrate Court’s preliminary inquiry into the matter. Now it’s expected to head straight to the Supreme Court.
The officers are expected to appear before Acting Justice Elliot Lockhart on June 23.
However, at that time Justice Lockhart is expected to recuse himself from the case and send it onto another judge as his firm, Lockhart and Munroe, represents Gardiner.
Attorney Willie Moss is representing Bowleg.
Key spent seven months in a coma at the Princess Margaret Hospital and Jackson Memorial Hospital following the alleged beating, according to his family.
Since Key died on January 19, Gardiner and Bowleg have been back to court several times to see whether the charges against them would be upgraded.
In February, attorney Murrio Ducille – who was representing Gardiner – excused himself from the case as he had an assistant with a close connection to Key.
The case was delayed further when police prosecutor Barry Miller took himself off the matter and suggested that a lawyer from the attorney general’s office deal with the matter.
On December 18, weeks before Key’s death, Magistrate Janet Bullard stepped down from the case when she identified a potential conflict of interest.
The men remain out on a $10,000 bail each."....