Lawyer concerned about number of false gun cases

Barbara Gayle, Justice Coordinator

Attorney-at-law Alando Terrelonge has raised concerns about the number of cases before the Gun Court in which persons are falsely accused of pointing guns at other persons especially during domestic disputes.

Terrelonge is calling for the law to be revised to protect persons against whom such allegations are made and no firearm is recovered.

He says too often these persons can go before the court and convince a judge that an accused person had a firearm, when no firearm was recovered, and the accused could be unjustly sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

The attorney’s concern stem from yesterday’s freeing of a St. Catherine man, Garfield Harvey, in the Gun Court.

Harvey was charged with illegal possession of a firearm and assault after it was reported that he pulled a firearm on a woman who had a fight with his common-law wife.

After testifying that she did not see when Harvey left the scene, the woman’s statement to the police was presented to the court in which she stated that she saw the accused running up a road with a gun in his hand.

Supreme Court Judge Glen Brown upheld Terrelonge’s no case submission and freed Harvey.

The judge remarked that he was very reluctant to send someone to prison on such evidence especially when no firearm was recovered and where there was no further investigation by the police after the complaint was made.

Terrelonge says last month he represented two men who were falsely accused of using firearms to threaten a woman over a water dispute in a tenement yard in downtown, Kingston.

In that case the Crown offered no evidence against the men.

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