Powell appears before Supreme Court, case postponed

[MdmeX]

Powell appears before Supreme Court, case postponed

2011-07-21 10:06:54 | (0 Comments)




The accused, Patrick Powell, as he is escorted from the courthouse in Half Way Tree on July 21. He was on his way to the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston. (Photo/Norman Grindley).
Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer

Patrick Powell, the accused in the Khajeel Mais murder case, was remanded in custody until Monday when he appeared before the Home Circuit Court this morning.

The case was postponed due to the absence of Powell's lawyer, Patrick Atkinson.

The court was told that attempts made to contact Atkinson were unsuccessful.

A preliminary hearing was avoided this morning when the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions entered a voluntary bill of indictment, at the gun court, allowing the case to be moved downtown to the Supreme Court.

Powell, 50, also appeared before the criminal division of the Resident Magistrate's court, where the case of failing to hand over his firearm for inspection was mentioned. That case has also been rescheduled for September 26.

Major Investigations Taskforce detectives charged Powell yesterday with murder, shooting with intent, illegal possession of a firearm, illegal possession of ammunition and failure to produce a firearm for inspection.

Powell was brought into the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court this morning under heavy police escort, as he was transported in a six vehicle motorcade.

He was taken to the courthouse in an unmarked police vehicle.

Attorney-at-law, Bert Samuels, watched this morning's proceedings on behalf of the Mais family.

livern.barett@gleanerjm.com

[MdmeX]

Why was Atkinson not in court?

Charge him fi contempt!

Sir gamma - what says you

[HL]

The Jamaican judicial system is a major part of lawlessness on the island.....>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The main concentration is on the scumbags and poilticians; but the role of the judicial system is largely overlooked.

[Mosiah]

That is just nonsense! Lawyer not present?!?! What kinda crap is dat?!?

Dem did say di alleged shooter big and bad. Well, it look like wi at least 50% carreck!

[Muadib]

overlooked by who ?

[Muadib]

Did Atkinson ever miss a Mannat appearance ?

[HL]

You should post the many articles that cite the corrupt Jamaican judges and attorneys.

I depend on this forum to provide me with jamaican news......

[Mosiah]

hells no!

[Muadib]

that is like someone depending on you to support the reggaeboyz...

[Mosiah]

Beside his precious X6.

http://anniepaulose.wordpress.com/20...nally-charged/

[Mosiah]

Finally! Patrick Powell, first mentioned by the Sunday Herald, as the man who owned the X6 involved in Khajeel Mais’s killing, has been charged by the police. Now could the mainstream media provide us with the full 100? This case will go down in history as the one that completely exposed the fecklessness of Jamaican media. Fine watchdogs they are! Too fraid to bark! and toothless on top of it!

The Herald may barely be hobbling along but it has all its teeth and doesn’t hesitate to use them, which is why it’s forced to hobble…

Sunday Herald...

[Mosiah]

http://anniepaulose.wordpress.com/20...ner-of-the-x6/

The only Jamaican paper with balls–The Sunday Herald


In Jamaican media, media bias, murder, whistleblowing on July 10, 2011 at 6:22 pm
I’ve been very irregular with updating this blog. Largely this is because in February this year I started doing two weekly radio programmes, Double Standards and The Silo, on Newstalk 93. Coupled with my full time job at the University of the West Indies this leaves me with very little spare time. Something had to give and alas, its been Active Voice…

Double Standards, which I co-host with Yvette Rowe, a BBC-trained radio and TV broadcaster attempts to give listeners a more in-depth, analytical sense of issues in the news, both locally and globally. We also look at media coverage in general, pinpointing where we think it’s biased or employing a double standard, or just plain inadequate, leaving the public ill-informed, in the dark or providing it with little more than a succession of press releases. In the last week or two there’ve been so many instances of this that we can barely keep up.

For instance the cover page headline in today’s Observer, one of the two main daily newpapers in Jamaica, blares ‘Who is the X6 Killer?’ The question relates to the leading article in the paper, illustrated by the image below, about a killing that has shocked the country.


Who is the X6 killer?
About two weeks ago Khajeel Mais, a 17-year old schoolboy travelling in a taxi, was shot dead by the driver of a BMW X6 which the taxi had accidentally grazed. In an apparent act of road rage the BMW driver leapt out of his vehicle and proceeded to fire at the taxi, which turned and tried to flee. One of the bullets entered the head of the unfortunate 17-year old killing him immediately.

Since then it has emerged that the owner of the luxury car is a highly connected businessman with ties to top policemen as well as politicians. No doubt this is why its driver felt empowered enough to attack the taxi in the brazen way that he did. No doubt this is why the major media houses here are scared to name either owner or driver. We don’t even know if they were one and the same or different.

Twitter was abuzz with the news and jokes about the X6, like this tweet: @afflictedyard: For Sale: BMW X6 #migratingmustsell #minordamage

All week long rumours have been flying about the murderous X6 driver to the effect that the man had left the country within hours of the shooting and that a senior cop with connections to the driver had been caught concealing information pertinent to the case. Although the policeman’s name has been mentioned at least once in a television news broadcast I saw, the alleged shooter’s identity, as well as the name of the owner of the car, have carefully been kept from the public in much the same way that the name of a Chinese restaurant in Mandeville, whose fried rice sickened at least 14 patrons, sending some to hospital, has been punctiliously withheld from the public.

What’s the deal here?

According to the Observer:

While the name of the alleged shooter cannot be published because he has not been charged with a crime, there are some things the Sunday Observer can report about him, based on interviews with persons who have intimate knowledge of him.

Clearly the newspaper IS in a position to divulge the name of the suspect, or the ‘person of interest’ to use a technical term, judging by the wealth of detail it goes on to provide about him. He’s “of dark complexion”, is a Canadian citizen and “has deep ties with both major political parties, though he is said to have greater loyalty to the Opposition People’s National Party”.
The murder suspect — who is a real estate developer and who is said to have enormous wealth — is also linked to other major local figures from the criminal underworld, while maintaining “very deep” connections with senior members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

The suspect, who over the years has kept a low profile, is said to have real estate developments in several posh St Andrew communities, including Liguanea and Norbrook.

Additionally, he’s said to have developments along Red Hills Road and owns several other multi-million-dollar properties in the Constant Spring area of St Andrew, among others.

He’s also the owner of a private jet.

The claim that the paper can’t publish the name of the suspect because “he has not been charged with a crime” is a crock of ********; this has never kept them from trumpeting the names of other less influential ‘suspects’ who have yet to be charged with a crime. In the very same paper there is another story: Security guard sought in mother-daughter murder:

A security guard is being sought by the Savanna-la-Mar police following the killing of two women and the injury of their neighbour during a dispute in Farm District, Westmoreland yesterday.

The accused has been identified as 25-year-old Roche Tomlinson.

The guard who is on the run, is yet to be charged with the murder, yet the paper boldly tells us his name! (omg! news has just broken that the security guard was killed and dismembered, then set ablaze by vigilantes, wonder if this has anything to do with his name being called?) Similarly some months ago Jamaican media, including the Observer had no qualms about bandying about the names of Vybz Kartel and Mavado when the two were taken in by the police for questioning as ‘persons of interest’ in crimes we are yet to be informed about. Mavado even complained of the resulting damage to his reputation but its not clear what compensation if any he has recieved. The same goes for Kartel who was kept in the lockup for two weeks prompting him to appear on stage at last year’s Reggae Sumfest in handcuffs and prison uniform.


Photo of Kartel: Marcia Forbes

spraggabenz
And only a couple of months ago we heard all over the media that DJ Spragga Benz was wanted for questioning by the police in connection with a triple murder. Apparently nothing came of it because he’s out and about. Has he been compensated for damage to his reputation? The answer is a resounding NO. Talk about double standards!

Well, guess what? The Sunday Herald names the owner of the car, calmly and without any fanfare, in a short news item titled “Police awaiting forensic tests on BMW X6″. It’s Patrick Powell. Of course we don’t know whether this was in fact the car that was involved in the accident, nor do we know, even if it was the car, that the owner was driving it at the time of the shooting.

But why is it only the Herald that had the balls to come out and name the owner of the car which is being investigated by the police? That’s what i want to know. More power to them! Again from Twitter: RT @JustSherman: Jamaica Observer and Gleaner couldn’t cross it, but the Jamaica Herald can swim #onlyrealjamaicannewpaper

[Muadib]

How old is the Herald ?

nuhbaddy will miss dem... dem can afford to fvck up... come tuh tink of it how dem still around... tink di tax man wouldah dun dem...

[HL]

ouch!!! Maudib man...that was a low blow...

[Muadib]

speak the truth and speak it evah !

lol