NASSAU- Magistrate Ambrose Armbrister sat for the final time Friday night.
The former prosecutor, was appointed as an Acting Magistrate on September 9, 2017.
Magistrate Armbrister is leaving the country to take up another post.
He wrapped up part-heard matters over the past 30 days and sat until 10pm Friday, delivering decisions.
As a Certified Public Accountant, Magistrate Armbrister heard most financial crimes cases.
FREEPORT – A man has been arrested for illegally dumping conch shells.
Cops were called to North Bahamia, near the Ruby Swiss Golf Course, around 11am by a person who witnessed the incident.
The officers responded with officials from the Department of Fisheries. They met three heaps of conch shells.
The officers found the 49-year-old suspect of Eight Mile Rock. He will be arraigned this week.
Police have advised the public to use designated areas to dispose of conch shells:
They warned that anyone found illegally dumping will face prosecution.
NASSAU- A church youth pastor was jailed for two years on Friday for embezzling $258,000 from The Bahamas government.
James Anwar Johnson, 31, went to trial after rejecting a plea deal for five years in prison, plus repayment of the stolen money.
Prosecutors, however, can appeal the two-year sentence on the basis that it was unduly lenient.
Johnson, who worked as an accounts clerk at the Ministry of Finance, posted false requisitions that resulted in his aunt’s company, VMMS Business, being paid for work it didn’t do.
The owner of the company, Janica Deveaux, absconded and is being sought by police.
Johnson, of St Andrews Beach Estates, was convicted of falsification of accounts, stealing by reason of employment, and attempted stealing by reason of employment.
The company was contracted to train employees at the Department of Inland Revenue.
VMMS Business received $445,996.42 in unauthorized payments between November 2016 and April 2017 as a result of Johnson’s false entries, prosecutors alleged.
The company attempted to steal $41,115 on April 5, 2017. The theft was thwarted after Johnson’s supervisor discovered the false entry.
However, Magistrate Ambrose Armbrister found that prosecutors had only proven that Johnson had aided the theft of $258,000 and the attempted theft of $41,115.
The unauthorized payments were deposited into the business’s account at ScotiaBank.
Johnson wasn’t a signatory to the account. However, bank records showed that he received $30,000.
Johnson admitted the theft when confronted by his supervisor.
He also confessed during an interview with police.
At trial, however, Johnson claimed that his former lawyer had persuaded him to admit.
Magistrate Ambrose Armbrister also ordered Johnson to pay fines of $12,500 in order to avoid spending an extra two years in prison.
The Court rejected defense lawyer Bjorn Ferguson’s request for an order of repayment. Ferguson said some of the money had been recovered as a result of a freeze order against the VMMS’s account.
By contrast, prosecutor Terry Archer said the $40,000 balance could not cover the loss.
Magistrate Armbrister said that a repayment order would not deter others from stealing from the government. Additionally, he said he was unlikely Johnson had the means to repay the money.
Johnson, a youth pastor at Lighthouse Fellowship Church of God, will be transferred to prison on Monday. He was held at the Central Police Station over the weekend because the magistrate sentenced him after the prison stopped accepting new inmates.
NASSAU- A bus driver paid a $200 fine on Friday to avoid spending one month in prison for indecently assaulting a teenager he was taking to school.
Magistrate Ambrose Armbrister found Dennis Clarke guilty of the indecent assault of the 14-year-old girl.
According to the prosecution, the C V Bethel High School student and her father boarded Clarke’s bus on the morning of October 7, 2019 at Soldier Road.
The girl’s father got off the bus soon after, leaving his daughter to continue her journey to school.
Before he drove off, Clarke turned to the girl, who was seated behind him, and said, “You pretty bey.” Then he put his hand under skirt and rubbed towards her upper thigh, the court heard.
The girl pushed Clarke’s hand away without saying anything. However, as she was about to get off the bus she told Clarke that she was going to tell her father what he had done.
The girl told a relative who works at her school about the incident, which was reported to the East Street South Police Station.
While they were there, Clarke showed up at the station. Clarke came to make a complaint against the girl’s father, who on hearing about the alleged assault, boarded his bus and hit him with a cellphone.
The officers arrested Clarke without taking his complaint.
Clarke denied inappropriately touching the student during his trial.
Magistrate Armbrister said he was satisfied that the girl was telling the truth during her testimony.
Clarke’s lawyer Allan Emmanuel asked the court to be as lenient as possible and not impose a prison sentence.
The unmarried father-of-one now works as a taxi driver, Emmanuel said.
According to him, Clarke lived with his mother and was the sole breadwinner of the home.
NASSAU- The former administrator of The Children’s Emergency Hostel was among six women charged following abuse investigations at the facility.
Authorities fired the women after they launched an investigation when surveillance footage of the beating of 11 wards of the state went viral on social media last month.
Prosecutors say that five employees of the hostel, inclusive of administrator Sabrina Smith, participated in the September 22, 2020 beating of the nine boys and two girls entrusted to their care.
The alleged victims range in age from eight to 11.
A sixth worker, Shawn Seymour, was accused of ignoring her responsibility to report the alleged child abuse.
Smith, 61, Eloise Canter, 52; who is wheelchair-bound; Carmetta Woods 47; Natasha Pratt, 46; Occonelle Gordon, 25; denied child cruelty charges at an arraignment before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt on Thursday.
Seymour also denied failing to report the abuse of a minor.
If convicted, they could face a maximum of two years in prison or a $5,000 fine.
The accused return to court in November 2 for their trial, which will continue until November 5.
In the meantime, they were each released on $9,500 bail.
As a condition of bail, they must each report to police on Mondays before 6pm.
Barry Sawyer represented Canter and Smith; Ian Cargill and McKell Bonaby represented Pratt and Ryszard Humes represented Woods. Smith and Gordon did not have lawyers.
Sergeant 3605 Samantha Miah prosecuted.
NASSAU- A man on bail for murder was gunned down Thursday morning.
Kendino “Fat Man” McDonald, 25, was shot in the head at Marmalade Close, off Wulff Road, around 9am.
McDonald spent four years on remand at prison before he was released on $20,000 bail in connection with the murder of businessman Albert Rahming.
Prosecutors say that McDonald was one of two men who fatally shot Rahming during a robbery attempt at Montagu Beach on November 13, 2016.
Rahming, 52, was found shot dead in his Mercedes Benz.
Rahming was a partner in Fantasy Web shops and the now-closed Body Zone gym.
NASSAU- Murder suspect Alex Daricaud has been granted bail on strict conditions that include a curfew and around-the-clock monitoring by a GPS tracking ankle bracelet.
The Court of Appeal agreed with defence counsel Wayne Munroe QC that his client should be freed pending trial.
Daricaud, 23, had been in custody since February 3, 2020 when he was charged with the murder of Dario Pinder that took place on January 28, 2020.
Pinder was gunned down as he was about to get into his car, which was parked outside an apartment complex in Garden Villas in Freeport, Grand Bahama.
After hearing gunshots, a witness saw a man wearing a dark coloured hoodie running away.
The Court found that Justice Gregory Hilton’s decision to refuse bail was unreasonable.
The Court said there was no evidence that Daricaud would interfere with witnesses or was a threat to public safety.
Munroe argued that there was no evidence to connect Daricaud to the crime. However, the Court said it was a jury’s responsibility to assess the evidence.
Among the conditions of Daricaud’s release on $30,000 bail are that he keep a curfew of 8pm to 6am, report to a police station three times a week and have no contact with prosecution witnesses.
NASSAU- Police killed a man on bail for the attempted murder of two policemen Tuesday night.
Officers attached to the Operations Unit were on patrol shortly before 10pm on East Street when Rashad “Rat” Laroda allegedly sped through a checkpoint.
Officers pursued the vehicle, which finally stopped at East Street and Cordeaux Avenue.
Laroda allegedly exited his vehicle holding a weapon.
The officers opened fire on Laroda, killing him on the spot.
He was charged with the attempted murders of two police officers in 2019 after he allegedly opened fire on them in Pinewood Gardens.
NASSAU- Police are investigating after a man was shot and killed overnight.
Authorities said officers responded to reports of gunshots in Finlayson Street just after 8pm.
They met a man and woman suffering from gunshot wounds.
They were both taken to hospital, where the man died from his injuries. The woman is in serious condition
NASSAU-Police have arrested a suspect in a shooting that left one man dead and another in hospital.
The men who are yet to be identified were found with gunshot wounds on John Road after 6pm Monday, February 22.
Both men were taken to hospital, where one of them died from gunshot injuries to the head. The second victim was shot in the chest.
According to police spokesman ASP Audley Peters, the gunshot victims were shot being chased.
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