JUDGE TELLS RAPIST-””Nice-looking young man like you, you will be spending the Christmas where you don’t want to be”

Woman loses over $500,000 gambling; says she was robbed
A young woman who lost over a half-a-million dollars through gambling at a lotto shop where she worked and then concocted a story that she was robbed by armed gunmen, was left in tears on Christmas Eve when she was denied bail in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court.
Rochelle Yates, 24, of Content Gap, East Rural St Andrew, was remanded for sentencing after she pleaded guilty to charges of larceny as a servant and creating public mischief.
The mother of a three-year-old son who was employed as a cashier at a Supreme Ventures outlet at Nuvo Dental Ltd at Boulevard Shopping Centre in St Andrew is also to return to court with $250,000, which her grandmother has promised to pay over to the complainant on January 21.
The court heard that on December 5, the complainant gambled $505,393 on the lotto machine playing a game called Money Time. At the end of the day she left for home without handing over the day’s sale.
Yates, the court heard further, returned to work the following day at 7:40 am and dialled 119, and informed the police that she was robbed of $600,000 by two armed men.
Three policemen responded to the call, and they told Yates that she was lying after they watched footage on the closed-circuit television and saw no evidence of the robbery.
In addition to confessing, Yates also told the police that she had hidden some money in the ceiling.
In court recently, her lawyer angered the magistrate after informing her that Yates’s grandmother had agreed to repay the complainant and that the complainant had given her six months to do so.
“Her grandmother should be charged for perverting the course of justice,” RM Pusey suggested.
She also berated the lawyer for having raised the issue before her, noting that she has warned in court on several occasions that there should be no exchange of communication between the accused and the complainant, whether directly or through a third party.
The magistrate then told the lawyer that she should be referred to the disciplinary panel and that she should be locked up.
However, the lawyer said that she had no part in the discussions.
The complainant, when questioned, told RM Pusey that Yates had expressed a willingness to repay the money when she was caught and based on that, an agreement was reached for her to repay the money over a six-month period.
The attorney, in continuing her bail application, then appealed to the magistrate to grant Yates bail, as she needed to spend time with her son.
“What do I care about that,” the magistrate asked. “She made the police go and investigate an imaginary case, they could have arrested three innocent men and anything could have happened to them in jail.”
Said RM Pusey, “She is not getting any bail as there is a movement afoot to kill the case and we don’t operate like that in here.”
She then asked when the complainant will be compensated and was informed that Yates’s grandmother has promised to come up with $250,000 on the next date.
Yates was then remanded.
Magistrate hurting over young men wasting their lives in crime
Senior Magistrate Judith Pusey told a young man in court recently that it pained her heart to keep him in custody for the Christmas holidays, as he should have his freedom to be dating young girls and enjoying the festive season.
The 19-year-old man was brought before the court on Tuesday, December 23, on a charge of rape but could not be offered bail as he is also before the High Court on gun and robbery with aggravation charges.
“Nice-looking young man like you, you will be spending the Christmas where you don’t want to be and you will be spending many more there if you don’t decide to change your ways,” she said to the accused.
“The badman thing don’t work,” she added. “The poor young girls can’t even find no men to marry.”
“Young little boy like you should be on the outside looking a girl to go out with tomorrow night,” the magistrate continued.
“It pains my heart when I see young men wasting their lives. You think I am happy when I have to remand you for Christmas?” she asked
The accused was then advised by the magistrate that when he sorted out his legal problems, he should try to get back on a lawful path and stay out of trouble.
The accused was remanded for a preliminary enquiry on January 27.
Husband upset that wife has moved in with another man
A man whose estranged wife reportedly damaged two of his roofing tiles complained bitterly that his wife had moved out of the matrimonial home and is “shacking up” with another man.
“I tell her not to come back at me home because we married and we not divorce and she living with another man,” was the first utterance from the complainant’s mouth when the matter was raised.
“She come over and throw two stones and break me tile and she living with a next man,” he continued.
The complainant in his statement had pointed out that he lived near to where his wife is now living and that he passes and sees her every day in the yard.
The accused, Sonia Mendez, a 45-year-old janitor of a Kingston 12 address, was arrested and charged with malicious destruction of property, following an alleged confrontation with her husband from whom she had recently separated, following eight years of marriage.
According to the complainant’s statement, on December 5 around 6:00 am, he went to the accused woman’s house nearby and left a suitcase of items that she had left at his home.
Shortly after, he said his wife went to his house and an argument started, following which he flung a stone at her and she hurled two on the roof, damaging two tiles valued at $1,500 each.
However, Mendez denied the allegations.
“When I went up to his house I didn’t get time to do that, cause he called the police and they came and took me to the station,” she said. “I didn’t fling one stone.”
In addition to that, she too lodged a complaint of her own.
“Your Honour, him tell me son in front of the police that him ago kill me inna me sleep,” Mendez said.
The matter was subsequently rescheduled for mention on February 11 and Mendez’s bail was extended.
Woman spends her friend’s Christmas shopping money
A woman who used her friend’s $53,000 which she got to shop for the friend’s children, spent the Christmas holidays in lock-up.
Nicola Thompson was remanded in custody on Monday, December 22 after she pleaded guilty to fraudulent conversion.
The complainant told the court that she collected the money from a partner and gave it to Thompson to do Christmas and back-to school shopping for her children from November 17.
“Your Honour, a me friend and she still deh round me same way a eat and drink, me nuh know how she a deal with me suh,” said the complainant.
“Where is the lady’s money?” RM Pusey then asked Thompson.
“Me use it,” she replied without remorse.
“So when am I getting back the money?” the magistrate asked Thompson who stood silently.
The complainant, however, responded and told the court that Thompson’s brother had promised to bring the money to pay her but no one showed up in court for her.
As a result the was remanded for her to make compensation.
“You not going home until I get it,” RM Pusey warned the woman.