By Barbara Gayle and Stanford Scott, Staff ReportersTHERE HAS been an uproar in legal circles following Resident Magistrate Carol DaCosta's decision to reverse the sentence she had imposed on a tourist who pleaded guilty on January 13 to unlawful wounding.
Initially, the judge had fined British national, Robert Cordell, $20,000 for attacking a hotel executive, but after taking a phone call from the Chief Justice shortly after disposing of the case in the local Port Maria court, she returned saying she would not be accepting the guilty plea.
Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe told The Gleaner yesterday that he had nothing to do with the RM's decision.
Mrs. DaCosta was moving on to deal with other cases when one of the clerks in the Court's Office advised her of the phone call.
The RM announced that she was adjourning court for a short while because the Chief Justice was on the telephone and wanted to speak to her.
When she returned to court she said that someone had made a call to the Chief Justice informing him that there was about to be a disturbance in St. Mary because she was letting go a tourist while the complainant was still in hospital.
She then said she could not accept the guilty plea and was reversing her decision. She offered the tourist bail in the sum of $20,000 and ordered him to return to court on January 15.
Mr. Wolfe later said that while he had spoken to the RM, the conversation did not deal with any "disturbance."
Attorney-at-law Veroneeth McKenzie, who is representing the 40-year-old tourist, has objected to the judge reversing her decision. She said she was going to appeal the matter because no person could be tried twice for the same crime.
NO LEGAL BASIS
Several lawyers with whom The Gleaner spoke have said that the Resident Magistrate had no legal basis on which to reverse her decision because once the fine was imposed, the matter was at an end.
Cordell, who was a guest at the Boscobel Beach Hotel, St. Mary, had wounded Richard Burrowes, the hotel's food and beverage manager during a dispute on January 12. He had accused Burrowes of making overtures to his wife during a previous visit eight months before.
After Cordell pleaded guilty to the charge, Resident Magistrate Carol DaCosta fined him $20,000. Cordell had offered compensation of $300,000 to Burrowes.
Burrowes was not in court and his lawyer, Christopher Hibbert, refused the offer because he said he needed a detailed medical certificate to ascertain the extent of his client's injuries. Burrowes was still in hospital at the time.
Cordell is to return to court today.
