Witness says cops ignored cries for help as Deane was beaten

WESTERN BUREAU:

A former inmate at the Barnett Street Police Station lock-up has testified that the three cops now facing charges instructed him not to tell investigators what he saw on the day Mario Deane was beaten.

The witness, currently in police custody, continued giving evidence in the Westmoreland Circuit Court, alleging that Corporal Elaine Stewart and Constables Juliana Clevon and Marlon Grant placed Deane, a newly arrived prisoner, in a cell with mentally ill inmates on August 3, 2014, after he “disrespected” them.

“From the office, I saw Ms Stewart exiting with the prisoner, ‘Short Man’, and ‘Indian.’ I could observe the prisoner being hit with a baton by ‘Short Man,’ and I could hear ‘Short Man’ saying to the prisoner, ‘A diss you a diss police’,” the witness told the court.

The prisoner had previously testified that he knew Grant and Clevon by the respective nicknames of ‘Short Man’ and ‘Indian’, based on their physical attributes.

“When Ms Stewart opened the cell door of the unsound prisoners, she ordered the prisoner to go inside the unsound cell. Ms Stewart closed back that door, and I heard when she said, ‘You nuh have no manners,’ to the prisoner that went into the cell,” the witness recalled.

“When she said that to him, he replied and said: ‘What do I do? A bail me go for and me say me nuh like police. A dat you a punish me for?’ and I heard Ms Stewart say, ‘Me haffi teach you a lesson,’” the witness added, noting that earlier, the prisoner in question had been taken out of another cell to be processed for bail before being brought back and placed into the mentally unstable prisoners’ cell.

The witness further testified that shortly afterward, he and his cellmates heard screams and sounds of fighting coming from the cell where the new prisoner was been placed and that the sounds continued despite their collective verbal attempts to intervene from their cell.

WITNESS RECOUNTS

“I could hear someone getting hit, and it sounded from the direction of the cell of unsound mind [cell] … . After about a minute and a half, I could hear the sound of the new prisoner that was placed in the unsound cell, saying, ‘Mi a nuh bad man,’ and while he was saying it, I heard the same sound,” said the witness, slapping his own shoulders to emphasise the sound he had heard.

“After me and my ‘cellies’ were hitting the grille for about two or three minutes, I observed Ms Stewart, ‘Indian’, and ‘Short Man’ exiting the main office door. I said to Ms Stewart that the prisoner who they put into the unsound cell sounded like he was getting beaten up, and Ms Stewart’s reply was, ‘Wha di [expletive redacted] you a call me for? Wha di [expletive redacted] you a call me for?’” the witness continued.

According to the witness, the police personnel eventually sought medical attention for the injured inmate but also removed the prisoners from the cell where the beating had happened and gave one inmate a bucket, a mop, a pair of gloves, and a substance resembling soap to clean the cell.

“After about 20 minutes, Ms Stewart came back by herself, came to my cell, and asked me not to say anything to investigators because she does not want to lose her job. I said to Ms Stewart that I am not going to say anything,” the witness continued, noting that Clevon and Grant individually made the same request to him.

The witness admitted that up to the time of the incident, he did not know the name of the beaten prisoner.

It should be noted that earlier in the trial, the prosecution read a 2015 deposition from a now-deceased witness, Castel McKenzie, who said he had come on August 3, 2014, to bail Deane, who was in custody for possession of a ganja spliff. In the deposition, McKenzie said he tried to silence Deane when the latter made a remark about not liking police, at which time Stewart reportedly told McKenzie to return later that day.

The current witness’ evidence-in-chief continues today.

Stewart, Clevon, and Grant are charged with manslaughter and misconduct in a public office in relation to Deane’s death three days after he was beaten. Stewart is also charged with perverting the course of justice as allegedly, she ordered for the cell where the beating took place to be cleaned before investigators from the Independent Commission of Investigations arrived.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com