Tashieka Mair, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

The Montego Bay Court office is denying allegations made by Operation Kingfish that crucial documents which were submitted for the case against 19-year-old Shameka Headley, who was allegedly involved in a lottery scam in the second city, are missing.

In a statement yesterday, spokesman for Operation Kingfish, Inspector Steve Brown, said when the case came before the court for trial on Wednesday, it was discovered that several important documents, including statements, were missing.

Awaiting documents

However, according to a clerk at the Montego Bay Court office, the prosecution was unable to proceed as it was still awaiting other relevant documents to complete the file.

When The Gleaner contacted attorney-at-law, George Thomas, who represents the accused woman, he concurred with the clerk. In addition, he said police officers involved in the matter did not turn up for the trial.

"What I heard the clerk say was that the prosecution was awaiting statements from the police," Mr. Thomas explained. "Nobody from Kingfish was there at the time when the clerk told the court that there were no statements on file and that we would have to set it for another date."

Ms. Headley was arrested and charged on February 15 as part of the illegal lottery scam during a massive Kingfish operation in Montego Bay, St. James.

The police said they were carrying out operations in the Westgate Hills community in St. James.

List of names given

Based on information received, a warrant was prepared for the team of officers to search the accused woman's home. During the search, the police said they recovered $1.12 million. Headley allegedly gave the police a list of names and numbers of persons to whom she said the money belonged.

However, when the persons were contacted, they denied her claims. When this was pointed out to Ms. Headley, she allegedly told the police that she had lied and that the money belonged to her.

According to Operation Kingfish, copies of the alleged missing statements will be re-submitted to the courts office early next week.

Kingfish also sought to make it clear that once the documents are submitted to the court it has no control over, or access to them.