Dexter Prass, who was remanded to prison on a charge of cocaine possession, has been cleared after another man appeared before the court yesterday to answer to the exact same charge.
Prass, who was also charged with possession of utensils for using cocaine, had denied the charges when he appeared before Magistrate Ann McLennan on Tuesday. However, it was in fact Dexter Attu, who police yesterday said had possession of the illegal items, when he was arraigned yesterday at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
Attu, 42, who provided his address to Magistrate McLennan as Lot 136 West Ruimveldt, is alleged to have been found on June 27 in the vicinity of the Ministry of Human Services with 2½ grammes of cocaine in his possession.
Attu was remanded to prison after Prosecutor Bharat Mangru made an objection to bail being granted on the ground that he had two conflicting addresses on record.
Mangru told the court that on the day in question, police ranks in plain clothes saw Attu acting in a suspicious manner and decided to conduct a search on his person. He added that they found in his clenched fists, a Ziploc bag containing rock-like substances, which were tested and later proven to be cocaine.
Prosecutor Mangru had on Tuesday noted that Prass had given the court an address contrary to the one he had mentioned to the police. The address was yesterday discovered to be the alternative one provided by Attu.
At his arraignment on Tuesday, Prass, 49, an “iron labourer” of Germania Village, vehemently denied having the cocaine, telling the court “it was all lies,” as he does not use the substance.
The charges, the court heard yesterday, will be withdrawn when Prass returns to court on July 30.
However, Prass will not go free as he had pleaded guilty to being in possession of 15 ½ grammes of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking for which he was sentenced to three years imprisonment and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. He also pleaded guilty to resisting arrest at the time the police accosted him and conducted a search that allegedly revealed the two items, and he was fined $15,000.
