THE CROWN will respond today to the submissions made in the appeal brought by former Resident Magistrate Norma Von Cork, who is appealing against her conviction for conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice.
She was convicted on April 28, 2000 along with Constable Morris Thompson, Christopher Moore, 27, businessman of a St. Andrew address, Radcliffe Orr and Clive Ellis, labourers, of Kingston addresses.
Mr. R.N.A. Henriques, Q.C. has been arguing that Resident Magistrate Almarie Haynes erred when she overruled the no case submission which was made at the end of the Crown's case.
Mr. Henriques said yesterday the prosecution failed to prove some material points of its case to which it had opened. He described the RM's findings as "pure naked conjecture and speculation". He asked the court to find that the RM's findings were not only unreasonable but passed the bounds of reasonableness.
Mr. Brian Sykes, Acting Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, will begin to address the court when the hearing resumes today. The Hon. Ian Forte, President of the Court of Appeal, Mr. Justice Ransford Langrin and Mr. Justice Seymour Panton are hearing the appeal.
The prosecution led evidence at the trial in the Corporate Area Criminal Court that in 1997 Von Cork and the three men plotted to have Orr plead guilty before Mrs. Von Cork to possession of ganja for which Christopher Moore and Brian Bernal, an architecture student, were convicted of in Kingston 1995. The prosecution claimed that the plot was hatched to cast doubt on the validity of Bernal's and Moore's conviction.
Orr pleaded guilty in the Mandeville Resident Magistrate Court, Manchester and Mrs. Von Cork jailed him for nine months.
Moore was sentenced to 10 days in jail because he was in custody for a long time awaiting trial. The others each sentenced to 12 months imprisonment.
Mrs. Von Cork is on bail in the sum of $5 million with a surety.
