EMBATTLED singer George Nooks’s case was rescheduled to March 27, 2018 when he appeared before Judge Vaughn Smith in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court in Half-Way-Tree yesterday.
The entertainer, who is charged with possession of cocaine, had his bail extended to the new trial date.
Judge Smith advised Nooks’s attorney, Donahue Martin, that the case should be tried in the Drug Treatment Court. However, Martin said his team is opposed to this move.
“He (Nooks) has been disputing what has taken place and that has not changed. I don’t think I will be able to comment on the plan moving forward for the defence,” Martin told the Jamaica Observer shortly after leaving the courthouse.
Martin also received the judge’s approval to review the Duhaney Park Police Station’s narcotics and crime diaries from the period May 4 — 10, 2017. According to the attorney, this request will allow the defence to review the documented events surrounding the case.
Nooks is also being represented by Queen’s Counsel Tom Tavares-Finson.
The case has already seen two hearings — May 17 and July 21.
According to police reports, on May 5, 56-year-old Nooks was seen by an anti-narcotics team in the Duhaney Park community after 9:00pm acting in a suspicious manner. He was accosted and a bag he was carrying searched. The bag was found to contain approximately two ounces of cocaine.
Nooks rose to fame in the 1970s using the moniker Prince Mohammed. He had chart success with hits including Tribal War and Forty Leg Dread.
In later years, Nooks won over a legion of fans with his gospel-inspired tracks including God Is Standing By and a cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water.