UWI protesters file constitutional motions

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados:

THE TEN people charged after a recent protest at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) have filed constitutional motions against their trials.

The accused, who include a university lecturer, a clerical officer and local and overseas students, have alleged, through their attorneys, Queen's Counsel Elliott Mottley, Theodore Walcott and Andrew Pilgrim, that they would not be able to get fair trials because of newspaper and television reports on the March 21 incident and because of comments made by Prime Minister Owen Arthur.

Magistrate Barbara Cooke-Alleyne has set hearing on the motion for September 27.

Rose-Marie Antoine, a 38-year-old law lecturer, has been charged with resisting Constable Leon Jordan, assaulting the officer, obstructing and unlawfully damaging the officer's shirt. Pearnel Charles Jr. pleaded not guilty to the single charge of obstructing a police officer.

Peta-Gay Levy, a 21-year-old Jamaican student, of Frank Worrell Hall, was charged with resisting, assaulting, obstructing a police officer, as well as damaging a police uniform.

Bahamian student Elsworth Nathaniel Johnson, 31, of Lot 59 Oxnards, St. James, was charged with resisting and assaulting a police officer.

Veoma Alisha Ali, a 20-year-old Trinidadian student, was charged with resisting and assaulting police. St. Lucian student Tara Melicia John, of No 44, Oxnards Heights, St James, was charged with obstructing a police officer.

Tasha Manley, a 16-year-old Jamaican student, of Oxnards, St James, was charged with failing to move when ordered to do so, and obstruction.

Karen Elizabeth Gonzales, 19, a Trinidadian, living at Oxnards Heights, St. James, was charged with resisting arrest and assault.

Karen Lorraine Duncan, a Barbadian, of No 1, Clermont Gardens, St Michael, pleaded not guilty to assault and resisting arrest.

Antoinette Eugene Goddard, of 11D, Rosemont, Black Rock, St Michael, a clerical officer at the campus, has been charged with assaulting, resisting and obstructing police.

Courtesy of the Nation newspaper in Barbados.

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