JAMAICA COURTHOUSE O

A man accused of squeezing the throat of his child’s mother and lunched her, got support from her on Friday after he turned up to answer a charge of assault occasioning bodily harm in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.

When the parents of a 12-year-old appeared in court, 42-year-old Roger Fearon, who stood in the dock and admitted to “jerking” his baby mother but denied punching and squeezing her throat, escaped a prison sentence.

The woman, who had shared 15 years of her life with Fearon, told the court that she did not intend to pursue the matter because he takes care of his children.

When the matter was called up, the prosecutor who read from the woman’s statement told the court that Fearon allegedly squeezed her throat, punched her and banged her head twice against the wall in a recent attack.

But Fearon, who pleaded guilty with explanation to the charge, denied punching her.

“I never punched her. I hold her throat and she drop and bruise her mouth,” Fearon stated, insisting that no one was perfect.

“I hold her throat, jerk her and she drop and she go for police,” the father further stated.

The remorseless father told the court that when the police arrived at their home, they both travelled in the police service vehicle to the station.

By this time, Parish Judge Chester Crooks told the woman not to worry because Fearon had pleaded guilty and he was now in his hands.

“Nine months imprisonment at hard labour,” Crooks said.

“No, Your Honour!” the lanky woman cried.

Fearon, who was seemingly surprised, stood with an expression of shock plastered across his face.

“I am suspending it for two years,” Crooks said.

Crooks told Fearon that what he did was wrong and that there is no justification for his actions.

The judge advised him that the next time he loses his temper he should remember that his baby mother begged for him not to go to jail.

A pensive Fearon exited the dock and sat on a bench before he was taken away for processing by the police.

Mother fists cousin in her eye for hitting her baby

A woman who confessed to hitting her cousin in her face but denied punching her in the eye, was hauled before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court in Kingston last week.

Saskeya Miller, who pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm told the court that she hit her cousin in her face because she had slapped her baby.

Allegations are that Miller punched the complainant in her left eye.

The complainant, who was living with Miller after she finished college and had migrated to Kingston to seek employment, denied hitting the baby.

On Friday when the matter was called up the complainant told the court that she did not intend to press charges. She said that she was motivated to do so after she was contacted and threatened by Miller’s older sister, who lives overseas.

The complainant said that she was further motivated when she called Miller’s mother, whom she said owed her $17,000 and had refused to repay her.

“When I called her she was not taking my calls. I called her with another phone and she said that a my business and I should tell the court,” the complainant said.

The court was told that the complainant paid $3,000 for her medical treatment.

Parish Judge Chester Crooks then ordered Miller to pay $5,000 and apologise to the complainant.

Miller, who was willing to reimburse her cousin, told the court that she did not have the money on her person but she could call her father to take the money to court.

The matter was subsequently referred to mediation.

Miller’s bail was extended for her to return to court on February 28.

Tradesman to stand trial

An upholsterer who failed to deliver a sofa was forced to face the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court last week.

Kevion Simms pleaded not guilty to breaching the Tradesmen (Breaches of Trust) Act when he appeared in court on Friday.

The prosecutor told the court that the complainant paid Simms $38,000 to repair and build a four-piece sofa set in January, but the furniture was not delivered.

In his defence, Simms argued that he had completed the sofa from March and had been calling her from May to collect it.

Unfortunately, Simms said he saw the complainant in August and by that time the material that he had used to reconstruct the sofa “rotten down” and that he had to do it over.

A November 20 date was subsequently set for the matter to be tried in the night court.

Woman who destroyed a water pipe while in custody gets one year’s probation

A woman who confessed to destroying a pipe while she was in custody at the Duhaney Park Police Station escaped imprisonment when she appeared in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on Friday.

On November 5, Rodeysha Powell pleaded guilty to malicious destruction of property.

Powell told the court then that she was “trying to get little breeze” when she climbed on top of the pipe.

When the matter was called up in court, Parish Judge Chester Crooks sentenced Powell to one year’s probation.

Man in trouble for fake credit cards

In less than a month, Christopher Williams was again before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on fake credit card charges.

Williams, 28, pleaded not guilty on Friday to uttering forged documents and obtaining goods by fraud.

The court was told that Williams attempted to obtain an iPhone 8 and an Apple television valued at $161,975 from a store in Kingston recently, when he was busted.

On October 5, Williams pleaded not guilty to two counts of uttering forged documents and attempting to obtain goods by forged documents.

The prosecutor told the court then that Williams tried to purchase two five-gallon containers of paint with two forged Bank of Nova Scotia credit cards at a paint shop on Constant Spring Road.

The court was also told that Williams fled the store after both credit cards were declined.

Williams will face the court again on November 22.