A former member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), who was arrested on arrival to the island last Thursday and was subsequently offered $100,000 bail, is to reappear in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court today along with a woman constable on allegations that they had assaulted two women they had arrested.
The ex-JCF member, Odain Simpson, was last Friday offered bail when he appeared in court following an application by his lawyer, Linda Wright, on an assault charge.
The court heard that on October 12, 2012, while Simpson was a serving member of the constabulary attached to the Mobile Reserve, he and his then female colleague were on duty in the Corporate Area when the driver of a Toyota Coaster bus was signalled to stop.
During a search of passengers, it is reported that both officers held two women by the throat. The women were later arrested.
However, Wright, who denied the allegations during her application, told the court that her client went to the assistance of his then colleague as the females were resisting arrest.
She also told the court that Simpson went to help the officer after relatives of the women had intervened.
The attorney also raised concern about the way in which her client was arrested. She told Parish Judge Simone Wolfe-Reece that her client was not informed about the allegations and that the warrant for his arrest was signed in October, but that no one informed him of this although he visited the island in May and even visited his colleagues at work.
According to Wright, her client, who resigned from the JCF last December and now resides in the Cayman Islands where he has been working as a police officer, came to the island to visit his newborn child.
Consequently, the attorney asked the judge not to enforce a stop order to prevent her client from leaving the jurisdiction, as he needed to return to work.
The judge, as result, offered Simpson bail without any conditions.
“When police are being prosecuted those matters, for some reason, take forever, so no conditions, as he has to survive,” Wolfe-Reece said.