WESTERN BUREAU:
THE ST. James Parish Council has again been implicated in the 1999 forced removal of street people from Montego Bay.
Yesterday, Special Constable Earl Clarke testified in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court that on the night of July 14, Inspector Ainsworth Gidden told a group of officers that they would be required to assist the St. James Parish Council to remove persons of unsound mind from the streets.
"Inspector Gidden told us we were going to help the Parish Council rid the streets of unsound mind persons," Clarke emphasised under examination from Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Bryan Sykes.
Clarke testified that he was one of five police personnel, including Constable Maxine Pindling, who provided security escort for the truck that transported over 30 street people from Montego Bay to St. Elizabeth where they were dumped.
Constable Pindling, St. James Parish Council truck driver, Roger Leslie, and garbage contractor Egbert Campbell, have been charged following a ruling by the DPP in connection with the kidnapping of the street people.
Clarke testified that the officers had all rebelled against Inspector Gidden's instructions but complied after he threatened to write them up for disobeying the orders of a superior. "Nobody wanted to go," Clarke repeated emphatically, throughout his examination. He said they relented after they were assured that they would not have to handle the street people directly.
"Inspector said the squad would be there in a support mode and would not be required to handle the people," he testified.
Under examination from Resident Magistrate Paulette Williams, Clarke said that he could lose his job if found guilty of that misdemeanour. He also testified that that he did not see his colleague, Constable Pindling, handle any of the street people nor did he see her pepper-spray them.
Under cross-examination from attorney Ian Ramsey, who represents Constable Pindling, Clarke testified that neither he, Pindling nor any of the officers with the exception of Inspector Gidden, had left the police vehicle that night.
In addition, Chairman of the St. James Parish Council, Mayor Hugh Solomon, as well as secretary manager Lilieth Allen and Superintendent of Roads and Works, Tubal Brown, have been subpoenaed to testify at the trial. Solomon and the Council were implicated but were exonerated by the Commission of Enquiry, which was set up to probe the scandal.
The trial resumes today, when Clarke will continue testifying.
