An Amatuk villager was yesterday granted her release on $50,000 bail after denying a charge that she had cannabis for trafficking.
The lawyer for Patricia Thomas, 56, told a city court that the two spliffs that were found in the woman’s home by police could not amount to the 19 grammes she is alleged to have had and that they could have belonged to anyone else in the house.
It is alleged that on March 18, at Amatuk Landing, Potaro River, Thomas had the cannabis in her possession for trafficking.
Thomas pleaded not guilty to the charge after it was read to her by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan.
As Thomas’s lawyer pleaded for reasonable bail on behalf of his client, he explained that the court should consider her age and the fact that the narcotics were found in a house that is occupied by four other persons and it could have been anybody’s drugs. At the time when the police allegedly found two ‘spliffs,’ Thomas was in the kitchen cooking, the lawyer added, while casting doubt on the quantity mentioned in the charge.
Meanwhile, police prosecutor Neville Jeffers did not object to bail for Thomas. She was subsequently placed on $50,000 bail by Chief Magistrate McLennan, who adjourned the matter to April 20, when it will be heard at the Mahdia Magistrate’s Court.
