Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

After waiting for more than four years for the notes of evidence at her trial, so that her appeal could proceed, Sergeant Winsome Gooden was freed yesterday by the Court of Appeal.

She was convicted on February 5, 2002, in the Spanish Town Resident Magistrate's Court, St. Catherine, of wilful neglect of duty. She was fined $250,000 or six months imprisonment.

On the day of her conviction, Sgt. Gooden, who was attached to the Old Harbour police station in St. Catherine, gave verbal notice of appeal and was given bail pending the outcome of her appeal.

The grounds of appeal were filed in 2002 in the Court of Appeal Registry and letters were sent to the Clerk of the Courts at the Spanish Town Court's office requesting the notes of evidence, but they were not sent until Monday.

In August 2005, Sgt. Gooden, who was represented by attorney-at-law Carlton Williams, had applied to the Court of Appeal seeking its intervention for the notes of evidence and reasons for judgment to be sent from the Spanish Town Resident Magistrate's Court to the Court of Appeal Registry.

A Court of Appeal Judge ordered on September 19, 2005, that the notes be delivered expeditiously but the order was not complied with.

Failure to produce

Sgt. Gooden filed a notice on October 3 this year seeking to have the appeal allowed because of the Crown's failure to produce the notes of evidence. She claimed that the long delay deprived her of her constitutional right of appeal and had resulted in extreme hardship and oppression.

The application was set for hearing last Monday in the Court of Appeal. However, on Monday the notes of evidence and the findings by RM Carol Edwards were sent from the Spanish Town Resident Magistrate's Court and the appeal was heard last Friday.

Mr. Williams argued on appeal that the RM erred in convicting Sgt. Gooden because at no time did she fail to do what was required of her in relation to her duties. He submitted further that Sgt. Gooden dispatched two policemen to the premises but they did not go.

The Court of Appeal, comprising Mr. Justice Algeron Smith, Mr. Justice Karl Harrison and Mr. Justice Horace Marsh (acting), ruled that Sgt. Gooden did not neglect her duty. Reasons will be given in writing at a later date.

Sgt. Gooden was convicted in connection with a report that she failed to act in response to phone calls made to the Old Harbour police station in November 1998. A woman complained that she asked for assistance from the police because her brother was threatening to kill his parents and had assaulted his mother but the police did not turn up.

Alphanso Biddes, the man against whom the complaint was made, killed his father James Biddes later that day and was subsequently convicted and sen-tenced for the murder.