Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterTHE COURT of Appeal has ordered a retrial for traffic cop Mark Richards who was convicted in October last year of charges of assault and malicious destruction of property involving another traffic cop. He was fined $150, 000 or six months in prison.
During the hearing of the appeal yesterday, Richards' lawyers Garth Lyttle and Shawn Kinghorn filed an additional grounds of appeal and submitted to the court a reconstructive report of the accident scene which was prepared by Corporal Dellon Lewis of Traffic Headquarters.
The court, comprising Justice Algernon Smith, Justice Karl Harrison and Justice Hazel Harris (acting) held that the report which was not tendered in evidence at the trial, could have been helpful at Richards' trial. The court said on that basis it was ordering a new trial.
Corporal Robert Cameron who is attached to the Traffic Department in Kingston had complained that on Feburary 12, 2004 he was on duty in Half-Way Tree when he saw a minibus parked in a no parking area near Clock Tower Plaza. He asked whose bus it was and Richards said the bus belonged to him. The Corporal told Richards he had parked in a no parking area and was in the process of writing a traffic ticket to give him when Richards went into the minibus and drove into Clock Tower Plaza.
NO PARKING AREA
He said he rode his motorcycle into Clock Tower Plaza where he saw Richards driving at a fast speed. Corporal Cameron turned into a side road and attempted to go to the other side of the road when he was hit off his motorcycle.
He fell to the ground and was hit by Richards' minibus. When he tried to hold on to the bumper of the minibus to get up, Richards hit his hand off the bumper and accused him of smashing up his minibus.
SKID MARKS
Richards had said in his defence that when he saw Cameron riding in the lane he was driving in, he applied his brakes and stopped. Cameron applied his brakes and the motorcycle developed a skid and went under his minibus.
The accident and reconstruction report which was prepared by Corporal Dellon Lewis stated that skid marks seen at the accident scene were created by the minibus and "indicate that the driver of the vehicle reacted by braking prior to the collision with the motorcycle."
