The Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) application to Magistrate Judy Latchman to summons journalist Travis Chase and a station manager to testify in the trial of self-confessed drug trafficker Barry Dataram was yesterday placed on hold.
Dataram, his common-law wife Anjanie Boodnarine, Kevin Charran and Trevor Gouveia are currently on trial over the alleged possession of 129.230 kilogrammes of cocaine (equivalent to 284 pounds), which police say was found at Dataram’s Diamond Housing Scheme home last year April.
The trial was expected to begin yesterday with Magistrate Latchman’s decision as it relates to summonses to be ordered for HGPTV employee Chase and station manager Nyjel Fraser to appear. The request for the summonses, according to the prosecutor, was based on comments made by Dataram during an interview with Chase that was televised.
Instead of making a decision on the summonses, the magistrate stated that she would grant CANU officer Andrew Yarde permission to give additional evidence and would subsequently make a decision as it relates to the statements at the conclusion of his evidence.
Yarde then proceeded to give additional evidence, stating that on June 23, 2015 he went to the Police Analyst at Eve Leary and uplifted items from a multicoloured box that had been lodged earlier containing utensils found at the defendants Diamond home. He further stated that the analyst’s certificate relating to the utensils were also uplifted and taken to the CANU headquarters and lodged for safekeeping.
A request was then made by CANU prosecutor Konyo Sandiford-Thompson to have the 692 samples of cocaine be admitted into evidence. This request was granted by the magistrate after close examination by the defendants’ attorney Glen Hanoman.
The matter was later adjourned to May 20.
