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Wednesday, 03 June 2009 
Six years after two members of the disbanded Crime Management Unit (CMU) were charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, arising from the 2003 Crawl murder trial, prosecutors on Wednesday agreed to discontinue the case.
Sergeant Dennis Ballen and Corporal Terrence Tingling walked free from the Corporate Area Criminal Court after Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn entered a nolle prosequi.
While acknowledging her embarrassment about the long delay in bringing the case to a close, Ms Llewellyn said given the delay and the fact that the jury had acquitted the accused men in the Crawl case, she agreed with the defence that it would be unjust to allow the case to go forward.
Defence attorney Valerie Neita Robertson told the RJR News Centre that the DPP had no choice but to throw out the case.
According to her, the evidence submitted by the DPP had already rejected by a jury at the Crawl trial.
"The accused, Ballen and Tingling had not actually been charged in the Crawl case so they were not convicted but the fact that same facts and witnesses were bring brought in this case to establish the same facts that were established in the Crawl case, it would be unfair to bring the matter at this stage after such a long delay," she said.
Sergeant Ballen and Corporal Tingling were charged following the 2005 acquittal of Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams and members of his CMU in the Crawl trial.
Prosecutors had alleged that on May 7, 2003, the day of the Crawl shooting, the two cops planted a gun in the house at Crawl in which four persons, including two women were killed.
The policemen denied the allegations.
Six years after two members of the disbanded Crime Management Unit (CMU) were charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, arising from the 2003 Crawl murder trial, prosecutors on Wednesday agreed to discontinue the case.Sergeant Dennis Ballen and Corporal Terrence Tingling walked free from the Corporate Area Criminal Court after Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn entered a nolle prosequi.
While acknowledging her embarrassment about the long delay in bringing the case to a close, Ms Llewellyn said given the delay and the fact that the jury had acquitted the accused men in the Crawl case, she agreed with the defence that it would be unjust to allow the case to go forward.
Defence attorney Valerie Neita Robertson told the RJR News Centre that the DPP had no choice but to throw out the case.
According to her, the evidence submitted by the DPP had already rejected by a jury at the Crawl trial."The accused, Ballen and Tingling had not actually been charged in the Crawl case so they were not convicted but the fact that same facts and witnesses were bring brought in this case to establish the same facts that were established in the Crawl case, it would be unfair to bring the matter at this stage after such a long delay," she said.
Sergeant Ballen and Corporal Tingling were charged following the 2005 acquittal of Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams and members of his CMU in the Crawl trial.
Prosecutors had alleged that on May 7, 2003, the day of the Crawl shooting, the two cops planted a gun in the house at Crawl in which four persons, including two women were killed.
The policemen denied the allegations.
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