INDECOM lead investigator says Deane’s cell was tampered with

WESTERN BUREAU:

Mollie Plummer, a former senior investigator with the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), testified on Tuesday in the Westmoreland Circuit Court that the cell where Mario Deane was fatally beaten in August 2014 appeared to have been cleaned before she arrived. Plummer was part of the INDECOM team assigned to investigate Deane’s death.

Concluding her evidence in the trial of Corporal Elaine Stewart and Constables Juliana Clevon and Marlon Grant – who are charged in connection with Deane’s death – Plummer said she observed signs of tampering at the Barnett Street Police Station lock-up in St James on August 7, 2014, four days after the incident.

She stated that the apparent cleaning of the cell violated provisions of the INDECOM Act, which mandates that the police preserve crime scenes and avoid obstructing INDECOM investigations.

“In this particular case, based on the legislation, the scene was tampered with. To the time of my observation, the area where the incident took place was cleaned,” said Plummer.

“As lead investigator, what can you say, if anything at all?” presiding High Court Justice Courtney Daye asked Plummer.

“That the area would have already been tampered with,”she answered.

INSTRUCTED TO CLEAN CELL

Her statement aligns with earlier testimony in the trial suggesting that Stewart, the highest-ranking cop among the three accused, allegedly, had instructed that the cell be cleaned before INDECOM investigators arrived.

Plummer also told the court that she took a statement from an inmate housed near the cell where Deane had been beaten. She said the inmate was allowed to review and correct the statement, which he signed on all seven pages, attesting to their accuracy. However, this account contradicts the inmate’s own testimony in which he claimed that the statement read in court did not truly reflect what he told the investigator.

Additionally, during Tuesday’s session, the prosecution recalled forensic investigator Detective Constable Rickardo Evans. He was shown photographs of a drainage pipe outside the cell block, which displayed a red substance resembling blood. Evans testified that he swabbed the substance and submitted it for forensic analysis.

Stewart, Clevon, and Grant, who are on trial for manslaughter and misconduct in a public office regarding Deane’s death, will return to court today.

Deane died on August 6, 2014, three days after he was beaten while in custody at the Barnett Street facility, where he was locked up for possession of a ganja spliff.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com