By Latrishka Thomas
After a hiccup with misplaced keys to the St John’s Magistrate’s Court on Monday, former Member of Parliament (MP) Dean Jonas has had his case pushed back by a further two months.
The former Minister of Social Transformation and Gender Affairs is charged with resisting arrest, making use of threatening language, disorderly conduct, assault and battery after an incident that occurred at his Scott’s Hill home on February 23.
The incident reportedly began following a dispute between Jonas and the mother of one of his children over custody of that child.
Jonas is yet to enter a plea to the charges due to submissions made by his lawyers Wendel Robinson and George Lake.
Robinson first surprised the court with a submission arguing that the police have no jurisdiction to prosecute criminal matters according to Section 31 of the Criminal Prosecutions Service Act passed in 2017 which repealed Section 31 of the Police Act, Cap. 330.
Head of the police prosecution department Dane Bontiff responded saying that, according to a clause in the legislation, the Act does not come into effect until a notice with a date determined by the Attorney General is published in the gazette.
Chief Magistrate Joanne Walsh at a subsequent hearing disclosed that based on her research the law was enacted on November 11 2021, but nine days later the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) wrote a letter giving power to police to prosecute matters in the magistrates’ courts.
Walsh therefore ruled that the police prosecutors are “properly before the court” and must be ready to proceed with the case on April 3.
But before the defendant could leave the court, his lawyers again put forward a submission arguing that the Commissioner of Police cannot institute criminal proceedings against anyone without express authorisation from the DPP as outlined in Section 27 of the same Act.
The magistrate overruled the submission saying that the DPP “can’t sign off on all kind of petty matters” but instead delegates as he did in his letter to the police prosecution.
The matter was then adjourned until this week, but on Monday it was adjourned again until June 12 after the court’s keys were reportedly temporarily misplaced, disrupting scheduled proceedings.
