A policeman and a baker were released on $8 000 bail each after they appeared on a rape charge yesterday.
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Lawman David Joel King, of 119 Welches Terrace, St Michael, and Jamar Akil Maughan, of King’s Village in the same parish, were in the District “A” Traffic Court charged with having sexual intercourse with a woman on October 24, knowing she did not consent, or was reckless as to whether she consented to the intercourse.
The men, both 29, were not required to plead to the indictable matter and were each granted $8 000 bail, ordered to stay away from the complainant, including through social media, and to return to court on April 29 next year.
King faced a second charge of using a computer on April 17, 2024, to send an electronic communication that was indecent and intended to cause, or was reckless as to whether it caused, annoyance to another female. However, it was thrown out on the basis of “time barred”, with Magistrate Alison Burke stating that certain summary matters had a time frame in which they must reach the court.
Prosecutor Station Sergeant St Clair Phillips had objected to bail for the accused, arguing they were familiar with the “identity of the witness in this matter” and if granted bail, there might be some “likelihood of intimidation or undue influence”. He asked the court to consider the public’s interest in the matter and the “outrage” which might come as a result.
In response, attorney
Kyle Walkes said his client, King, has been a policeman for almost ten years and his profession should not be a determining factor as to whether or not he gets bail. There was no evidence, he added, that the accused had “used his position in any way, in this matter”.
He said King had no previous convictions, nothing pending in the law courts, had cooperated fully with police, and stringent conditions could be placed on him if the court was mindful to grant him bail.
In relation to public opinion, Walkes said “this is not a court of public opinion but a court of law”, and public interest should therefore not be a hurdle to bail.
Attorney Martie Garnes asked the court to grant his client Maughan bail, “unless the prosecution has some substantial grounds as to why he should not be granted bail”.
He said the notion that the accused might interfere with the witness was not good enough “in this day and age” and he was hoping the court would not just rely on a police prosecutor’s “say so”. Maughan had no criminal record and was “as clean as they come”, he told the court. (SD)