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Officer assaulted during domestic call

David Stewart
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Officer assaulted during domestic call

NASSAU-A man assaulted a policeman responding to a domestic call.

Delano Saunders, 37, admitted charges of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest when he made his initial appearance before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes on Friday, May 29.

Officers responding to a domestic dispute around 5pm on March 21 met Saunders and his girlfriend in a heated row.

PC 2012 Newton intervened. That’s when Saunders shoved him, the court heard.

Then, Saunders put up a struggle as the officer placed him under arrest.

Saunders’ attorney Bernard Ferguson asked the court to let Saunders off with a warning.

According to Ferguson, Saunders ended his romantic relationship with the woman more than a decade ago. However, they had a child together.


Ferguson said that Saunders did not waste the court’s time and avoided a trial by pleading guilty at his arraignment.

He suggested that the court warn Saunders to avoid contact with his ex-girlfriend who “was trying to provoke him”.

However, Magistrate Forbes didn’t grant the discharge requested by Ferguson.

Instead, he ordered Ferguson to pay $350 fine to avoid spending one month in prison.

This is Saunders’ first conviction.

The magistrate suggested that Saunders used a common sense when provoked in the future.

Otherwise, Magistrate Forbes said that Saunders could face more serious charges in the future.

Wife beater ordered to pay spouse $5,000

 

One dead, 3 in critical condition after shooting

David Stewart
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One dead, 3 in critical condition after shooting

NASSAU-One person is dead and three others are in critical condition after a shooting in Bel Air Estates.

Police responded to a call about a shooting a Belleville Circle around 1pm Friday.

According to police, three armed men exited a gold car and opened fire on a group of people in front of a home.

Peron Bain, 33, of Bel Air Estates, died at the scene.

And, two other gunshot victims, including a 10-year-old girl, are in critical condition in hospital, police said.

The third hospitalised victim got hurt while trying to escape, police said.

Anyone with information about the incident should call the police.

 

Landlord fined for threats to tenant

Lisa Brown
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Landlord fined for threats to tenant

NASSAU-A landlord threatened a tenant who remained on his premises, despite getting an eviction notice last month.

Philip “Ducky” Carey, 54, told Patrice Mackey on May 26 that he would get her out of his apartment at Butler Street, Nassau Village “by all means necessary.”

Carey then told her that he “would chop her with a cutlass and mince her like crawfish.”

Prosecutors initially alleged that Carey brandished a cutlass when he made the threat.

However, the prosecutor Sergeant Lincoln McKenzie withdrew the charge of assault with a dangerous instrument.

Carey pleaded guilty to making the threat of harm at his arraignment before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes. He was not represented by a lawyer.

He told the court that his wife gave Mackey notice to vacate on April 8.


Carey, who lives on the same property, said he’d had other run-ins with his tenant.

Forbes ordered Carey to pay a $400 fine or three months in prison.

The magistrate told Carey that there were legal means to remove an unwanted tenant.

“Why haven’t you made any other attempts to remove the tenant legally from your premises, as opposed to resorting to threats?”

However, new civil trials are suspended during the coronavirus pandemic.

As a result, the courts are only hearing emergency evictions.

 

Court grants emergency eviction

 

 

 

Lil Mel admits death threat to cop

David Stewart
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Lil Mel admits death threat to cop

NASSAU-Melvin Maycock Jr has admitted to threatening to kill an off-duty police officer.

Maycock, also known as Lil Mel, made the death threat during an argument with PC 3592 Dames at Potter’s Cay Dock at 7:30pm on June 25, 2019.

At the time, PC Dames was not in uniform. It’s unclear if Maycock knows Dames is a cop and who started the argument.

Attorney Jomo Campbell said Maycock was remorseful and had been drinking Hennessey and Red Bull at the time of the incident.

Although police had circulated a wanted poster for Maycock, Campbell said that he was living “openly in Eleuthera.”

Campbell said that police arrested the 35-year-old during a roadblock on the island.


Campbell said the convicted drug dealer was a “changed man.”

The lawyer said, “He has reprogrammed himself, your worship, changed his character. He has relocated to the Family Island of Eleuthera, where he is gainfully employed as a stone crab claw fisherman.”

Acknowledging Maycock’s drug dealing past, Campbell said, “He has seen that the seas actually produce legal, gainful employment.”

Campbell asked the court not to impose a prison sentence.

In sentencing, Senior Magistrate Carolyn Vogt-Evans said, “Threats of death is very serious offense, and it is even more serious, when it’s against an officer of law and justice.”

Vogt-Evans said that drunkenness was not an excuse and that a drunken man speaks a sober tongue.


She ordered Maycock to pay a $500 fine to avoid spending five months in prison.

Maycock paid the fine.

Past arrests

The Supreme Court in 2014 refused a bid by U.S. prosecutors to extradite Maycock for drug smuggling, citing insufficient evidence. However, Maycock has local convictions for drug trafficking. He also helped his father, Melvin Maycock Sr., escape from a cell at the Elizabeth Estates Police Station by switching places. Maycock Sr. was extradited to Florida for drug smuggling in 2015.

Supreme Court resumes bail hearings next week

David Stewart
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Supreme Court resumes bail hearings next week

NASSAU-The Supreme Court will resume all bail hearings next week.

On March 20, Chief Justice Brian Moree QC stopped most bail hearings because of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the Supreme Court still heard emergency bail applications.

With courts operating on a limited basis, scores of un-sentenced inmates had no idea when they could seek pre-trial release.

Magistrates have no choice to deny bail for most offences. That’s because a 2011 amendment to the Bail Act removed their power to consider bail.

The amendment prevented magistrates from granting bail for drug possession with intent to supply, and firearms offences.

Additionally, magistrates cannot consider bail for offences, which can be tried either by magistrate or before a judge and jury in the Supreme Court. Offences like threats of death, housebreaking and stealing fall within this category.


In December 2019, Parliament announced its intention to return the power to grant bail to magistrates.

However, this has yet to happen.

At the 2018 opening of the Legal Year, Acting Chief Justice Stephen Isaacs said the amendment had increased the court’s workload and put people without lawyers at a disadvantage.

Isaacs said this was counter-productive.

He said, “It has the potential of creating resentment toward the authorities by those young persons caught up in this conveyor belt bail process.”

Street preacher fined for breaking virus curfew

Lisa Brown
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Street preacher fined for breaking virus curfew

NASSAU-A Haitian street preacher has paid a $400 fine for breaking the coronavirus curfew.

Police arrested Etienne François after 10pm at the Prince Charles Drive on May 25.

François, 48, who is on the country on a work permit, pleaded guilty to violating the curfew when he appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes on May 27.

He told police that he was “walking and preaching and did not know he has reached as far as Prince Charles Drive.”

François lives on Palm Beach Street. If he didn’t pay the fine, he would’ve served two months in prison.

He was among several arrested for failing to abide by a stay-at-home order intended to contain the spread of the coronavirus.


Cowpen Road resident Diana Pierre paid a $400 fine to avoid spending one month in prison for her curfew breach.

Police arrested her on Faith Avenue at 2:40 am on May 26.

She told police that she was unaware of the time of the curfew, the court heard.

A man who claimed he was dropping groceries to his girlfriend was also fined $400,

Police arrested Jawanni Williams, 21, at 12:45pm on May 25.

Williams told the court he was headed home after dropping off the groceries.

However, he gave a different account on arrest. When arrested, Williams told officers he was chilling with his cousin.

A man arrested during the lockdown at Arawak Cay has been freed on bail, pending his trial.

Police arrested 52-year-old Cambridge Cooper at Goldie’s Restaurant on May 24.

Cooper told the court that he worked as a caretaker at the restaurant.

He returns to court on October 8 for trial and is free on $500 bail.

Curfew violators risk fines up to $10,000 and maximum prison sentences of 18 months.

Ex-con sent to prison for second gun crime

Muhammad Ahsan
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Ex-con sent to prison for second gun crime

NASSAU-A magistrate jailed an ex-con who claimed he needed a gun to protect himself for 3 ½ years.

Elvin Taylor, 27, of Windsor Lane, pleaded guilty to possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition when he appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes on May 27.

Police arrested Taylor on May 25. He had a 9mm Smith and Wesson pistol, with its serial number erased, and 15 rounds of ammunition.

Taylor’s been to prison for having an illegal firearm before. In 2015, a magistrate sentenced him to two years in prison.

This time, Taylor said he had the gun for protection because he’d been robbed multiple times within weeks.

Forbes asked Taylor how he planned to use the gun against a robber.


Taylor claimed that he would “scare him.”

Forbes said, “If you have a gun and he has a gun, then what next?”

“Having a firearm doesn’t add protection to you at all. If anything, it escalates an already tense situation.”

Taylor’s lawyer Ian Cargill asked the court to be as lenient as possible, considering his previous conviction and early plea.

Cargill said there was no evidence that the gun was linked to any other criminal activity.

Forbes considered Taylor’s prior conviction and early plea in arriving at his sentence.

 

Gaming houses challenge PM’s coronavirus orders

David Stewart
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Gaming houses challenge PM’s coronavirus orders

Nassau-Two gaming houses are challenging Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis’ legal authority to issue coronavirus-related shutdown orders that have affected their operations.

The Island Game and Paradise Games filed a lawsuit on May 27 over the prime minister’s authority to issue the orders that have been in place since March.

Under the orders, The Island Game and Paradise Games cannot operate during the state of the emergency.

The firm of Munroe and Associates represent the gaming houses in the suit. The firm’s principal Wayne Munroe QC has been openly critical of the shutdown.

The gaming houses want the Supreme Court to find that Minnis and the attorney general did not have the right to make the orders under the Emergency Powers Act.


As a result, they want the court to declare the emergency power regulations and all orders made under it void.

Even if the emergency powers regulations and the orders are valid, the lawsuit alleges they are not reasonably justifiable under the constitution.

The applicants have asked the court to award damages for breaches of their constitutional right to move and assemble freely.

Minnis has said the emergency powers are made in the interest of public health.

And, the applicants want the court to force the prime minister to testify about the medical basis for the orders.

The prime minister has extended the emergency powers until June 29.

Murder suspect killed in double shooting

Lisa Brown
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Murder suspect killed in double shooting

Nassau-A murder suspect was killed in a shooting that left another woman in hospital.

According to police, a man and woman were driving on Lumumba Lane around 9am on May 27 when the occupants of a black car opened fire.

Contrary to earlier police reports, the woman—not the man—drove more than a mile to the Fox Hill Police Station seeking help.

However, her passenger died before help arrived. Police have not provided an update on the woman’s condition.

The murder victim has been identified as Steffon Rolle, whose street name is Chubby.

Rolle, 24, of Fox Hill, was on bail for the February 12, 2019 shooting murder of 47-year-old Richard Fowler.

Prosecutors allege that Rolle and Owen Williams killed 47-year-old Fowler in a shooting at the Fox Hill community’s park.

Rolle maintained his innocence but died before he could clear his name.

Rolle is the second Fox Hill resident to be murdered this month.

Jason Joseph, 17, was killed on Rahming Street on May 12 as he bought breakfast.

Joseph was also on bail. However, he was accused of possession of an unlicensed firearm.

 

Man accused of sexual assault on girl, 8

David Stewart
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0
Man accused of sexual assault on girl, 8

Nassau-A man has been refused bail on charges of molesting a minor at a home.

Sheldon Forbes, 42, of Sir Lynden Pindling Estates, appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes accused of the indecent assault of an eight-year-old girl.

Forbes did not have a lawyer for his initial court appearance. And he won’t be required to enter a plea to the charge until his arraignment in the Supreme Court.

Despite this, Forbes told the court that he’s innocent.

The magistrate told him that would be decided at his trial in the Supreme Court.

Forbes will learn his arraignment date once he’s served with a voluntary bill of indictment.

That’s expected to happen on July 30.

He’ll remain at the Bahamas Department of Corrections unless a Supreme Court judge grants him bail.

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