APNU+AFC Members of Parliament (MPs) Annette Ferguson and Christopher Jones are among a group of eight persons who were on Friday freed of a charge that they participated in an illegal procession last year.
Ferguson, Jones, Mark Griffith, Travis Ellis, Gordon Lucas, Gary Morris, Malcom Ballison and George Halley were jointly charged with the offence in May 2021.
The proceedings against the MPs and other accused were concluded yesterday when Georgetown Magistrate Rhondel Weever upheld no-case submissions made by the defence and dismissed the charge.
The charge stated that on April 26, between Croal and Regent streets, Georgetown, the accused took part in a procession without permission of the Chief Officer of Police having first been obtained.
Ferguson, Jones, Grif-fith, Ellis, Lucas, Morris, Ballison and Halley had pleaded not guilty to the charge. Ferguson was also facing a separate charge which alleged that she obstructed a peace officer. She was freed of that charge as well.
Attorneys-at-law Joseph Harmon, Darren Wade, Geeta Chandan-Edmond, Ronald Daniels and Lyndon Amsterdam represented the defendants.
The offence was allegedly committed following the ruling by Chief Justice Roxane George on the APNU+AFC elections petition, which saw some coalition supporters taking to the streets afterward to protest the decision.
According to a press release issued by Amsterdam, Ferguson was charged with the offences taking part in an illegal procession and obstructing a peace officer in the execution of his duties.
The release said that during the trial, Command-er Simon McBean and seven other Police Officers gave evidence to support the charges. It added that Magistrate Weever identified the numerous conflicts in the testimony of the police witnesses and in some cases the lack of evidence to prove elements of the offences.
It was noted that the Commander admitted under cross-examination that the persons who had gathered in the vicinity of the High Court did not need a permit from him to do so nor did they need a permit to walk along Croal Street, Regent Street after the ruling as the law required the organizer of a procession to obtain a permit and not the individual participants. There was no evidence before the court as to who was the organizer of a procession on the date.
In dealing with the charge of obstruction against Ferguson, the release said the Magistrate noted the conflict in the evidence between Sergeant Hosannah and Assistant Superintendent Wendella Boyce as to what Ferguson is alleged to have done that constituted the charge. According to the release, Hosannah had said that the MP walked up to him and said ‘I will handle this,’ while Boyce claimed that Ferguson stood between Hosannah and Ellis and prevented him from arresting Ellis. It was noted by the Magistrate that Hosannah said he arrested Griffith for disorderly conduct and not Ellis as stated by Boyce.
Additionally, the attorney said in the release that the two MPs always maintained that the charges against them and the other defendants were politically-directed and were satisfied that their innocence was vindicated in a Court after a trial and not based on the intervention of the Director or Public Prosecutions.
