Salt Spring councillor cleared of criminal charges

Christopher Thomas, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:
The Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court has dismissed the charges of unlawful possession of property against Sylvan Reid, the People’s National Party councillor for the Salt Spring division in St. James.

The matter was dismissed after the presiding Resident Magistrate Sandria Wong-Small ruled that based on the prosecution’s sole police witness testimony, there was no reasonable cause to suspect Reid of having unlawfully obtained a flat-screen television set.

In his summation, Attorney-at-law Roy Fairclough, who represented Reid, said his client’s inability to provide proof of purchase for the TV at the time of his arrest was not sufficient reason to suspect that he was involved in wrongdoing.

Reid was arrested on July 18, 2012 by members of the Anti-Lottery Scam Task Force at his home in Cornwall Courts, Montego Bay.

Montego Bay’s deputy mayor Michael Troupe and his son Jevaugn Troupe were also arrested on that day at their home in Granville on gun and ammunition charges.

All charges against the deputy mayor were dismissed in the Western Regional Gun Court on July 31.

However, his son pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years imprisonment on the firearm charges and fined $2 million for possession of five rounds of ammunition.

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