Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

The 11 members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force who were served notices in 2005 that they were to be retired in the public interest for alleged criminal activities will remain on the job until their appeal has been heard and determined.

President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Paul Harrison, granted them a stay of execution of a Supreme Court order which had upheld their dismissal notices.

Remain on the job

Attorney-at-law Arthur Kitchin, who is representing the policemen and women, said yesterday that the stay meant they will remain on the job, pending the outcome of the appeal.

The 11 were notified in December 2005 that they were to be retired in the public interest, but challenged the decision of the Police Services Commission in the Supreme Court.

The Police Services Commission decided on December 16, 2005, that the police personnel were to be retired because of their alleged involvement in illegal activities. It was alleged that some of them were involved in a drug-smuggling ring which gave protection to drug couriers travelling through the airports.

Some of the defendants were attached to the Narcotics Division's branch in Montego Bay, while others were attached to other police units in the second city. They are Det. Sgt. Dalton Samuels; Cpl. Norma Porter-Thaxter; Det. Cpl. Ryan Dwyer;corporals Enos Williams, Teeshan Gordon and Joy Streete; and constables Kenneth Brown, Oral Hylton, Owen Condell, Dwayne Mullings and Elvid Vassell.

Kitchin had argued before Justice Marva McIntosh in the Judicial Review Court in February that the cases should have been prosecuted in the courts, because the allegations were criminal in nature.

The judge dismissed the motion and upheld the dismissal notices.