Policeman recounts confrontation at obstruction trial of attorney Gordon Brown
A policeman today recounted a confrontation between cops and attorney-at-law Gordon Brown, who is on trial for obstructing the police and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
“Unuh can't lock him [businessman Michael Issa] up," Detective Constable Julian Frasier testified in the St James Parish Court today.
Frasier told the court that Brown made the remark while holding onto Issa.
He said that he subsequently warned Brown not to obstruct police personnel.
Allegations are that on January 13 this year the attorney sought to prevent the businessman from being detained by cops attached to the criminal investigation branch at the Montego Bay Police Station in St James in relation to a firearm he reportedly failed to hand over to the police.
Issa was arrested and charged with negligent loss of a firearm, indecent language, and resisting arrest when he went to make a police report on January 13, hours after his stepson was abducted and killed.
The matter of Issa's licensed firearm, which went missing on December 17, 2021, and was subsequently found, is unrelated to the child's death.
The negligent loss of firearm charge was eventually dismissed.
However, Issa is to be tried in relation to the other charges.
At Brown's trial today, his attorney Queen's Counsel Carolyn Reid-Cameron rejected the policeman's testimony during cross-examination.
She called his investigative competency into question, citing his admitted failure to record particular details about his previous interactions with Issa before the confrontation with Brown.
Reid-Cameron is to continue her cross-examination when the trial resumes on August 23.
By that time, the defence is to be served with documents in the case.
The trial is being heard by parish judge Sasha Ashley.
- Christopher Thomas
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