By Latrishka Thomas
Suspended superintendent of police Ray John and his ex-partner Shakema Charles walked out of court yesterday with a sense of relief, as the judge quashed the three-count indictment against them.
However, their elation may be short-lived, as the matter could be retried.
The duo had been accused of conspiring with Vincentian resident Lonzel Jones to forge passport bio pages using unauthorised Multi-Layered Infilling Sheets between January 1 and April 7 2018.
Charles, who worked at the Antigua and Barbuda Passport Office, was also alleged to have conspired with John, who allegedly received 16 of the infilling sheets.
On January 7, a judge-only trial against the duo began and over the past few weeks 19 witnesses testified, revealing that John and Charles provided the sheets and other documents to Jones in St Vincent.
John allegedly promised Jones substantial compensation for creating fake passport bio pages.
The alleged scheme was uncovered when Jones was caught delivering the finished documents to John’s nephew.
After the prosecution concluded its case, the defence filed a ‘no case’ submission, arguing that the evidence presented was insufficient to support a finding of guilt.
However, the judge dismissed that application.
Marshall then made another application, asserting that only the receiving charge can be tried by a judge alone as outlined by the Criminal Proceedings (Trial by Judge Alone) Act 2021.
Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Shannon Jones-Gittens disagreed, saying that although conspiracy was not mentioned as a judge-only matter in the legislation, forgery is.
She argued that the inchoate offence must be grouped with the substantive offence.
Well, the judge ruled that although the prosecution made a sound and logical argument, the law must be taken as is because it was very specific.
As a result, he declared that the case cannot be tried by judge alone.
He therefore scrapped the charges and freed the former couple.
The prosecution indicated that they intend to have the matter retried in the next assizes.