Issa’s wrangle with cops over phone access continues
Published:Friday | December 16, 2022 | 1:45 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
Amoi Leon Issa, who has been pushing back against a police request for access to her cellular phone as they probe the murder of her son, Gabriel King, is set to return to the Supreme Court for an application for leave for judicial review.
Issa is seeking permission to have a judicial review of an order last month by Senior Parish Judge Sasha-Marie Ashley for her to give the police access to the device by November 24.
The matter failed to get under way on Thursday due to a technicality.
Issa’s lawyer, Chukwuemeka Cameron, said that as a result, he will need to take further steps before the matter returns. Hence, a date was not scheduled for its return before the court.
The parish judge was forced to make the order after Issa refused to comply with a production order that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) had made for access to her cellular phone.
The order by the judge authorises the police to extract communication and other data from the device.
Issa was ordered to provide access to, and produce in an intelligible form, any communication data contained on the cellular phone. She is not to be present during the extraction but can have her attorney as an observer as well as a computer technician as a third-party observer.
When asked by The Gleaner whether his client had complied with the November 24 order, Cameron refused to comment.
The police were first granted a court order on September 6 for Issa to give them access to the cellular phone, which is in police custody. Communication cell-site data was also to be handed over to the police within 48 hours.
However, Issa challenged the order on the basis that it infringes on her right to privacy without a guarantee of certain safeguards.
Cameron had sought to have the order discharged or varied, citing claims that the police misled the court in getting the initial order by saying that cell-site data could be found on the device, but his request was not granted.
The JCF’s legal representative, in defence, submitted that Section 21 of the Cybercrimes Act does not allow for a production order to be discharged or varied.
King was reportedly abducted and his throat slashed on January 13 and killed while travelling with his mother along the Tucker main road in St James.
Commanding officer for the St James Police Division, Senior Superintendent Vernon Ellis, following the incident, had indicated that the police have been stonewalled in their investigations by a lack of cooperation from persons close to the matter.