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| LOCAL T&T STEELBAND NEWS |
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1st - 3rd December 1999
eEd - tobagojo@gmail.com
| Hatters panmen freed Case turns into comedy |
Hatters panmen freed of Carnival obstruction
© TRINIDAD GUARDIAN, Wednesday, 1st December, 1999, Page 3
Guardian South Bureau
TWO panmen, charged with obstructing police on Carnival Monday, February 16th, were discharged by a San Fernando magistrate yesterday.
Magistrate Kwesi Bekoe, sitting in the San Fernando First Court, told Kerry Blackman, 44, of Blitz Village, Pleasantville, and Arthur Sparks, 33, of Lady Hailes Avenue, San Fernando, that they were free to go, after he upheld a no-case submission by defence attorney Subhas Panday.
The pair are members of Hatters Steel Orchestra.
On that day around 7.10 am, Blackman and Sparks were among other panmen on a trailer with pans, being pulled by a tractor.
The group was stopped on Chancery Lane by acting Spt Winston Corneal, of the San Fernando CID, who was accompanied by SRP Anderson Corneal and other officers.
It was alleged that Blackman and Sparks prevented the officers from speaking to the driver of the tractor. Subsequently, they were arrested and charged by SRP Corneal with obstructing police from their duties.
In court, Panday submitted that his clients should be freed on the basis that the witnesses for the prosecution did not know whether it was Blackman or Sparks who first obstructed the officers.
| Hatters panmen freed Case turns into comedy |
Hatters Steelband case turns into comedy
© EXPRESS, Friday, 3rd December, 1999, Page 31
By TERRY JOSEPH
A COMEDY unfolded before Magistrate Kwasi Bekoe when he attempted to conduct a hearing of the landmark case against officials of the Hatters Steel Orchestra.
Last J’Ouvert morning, the steelband was stopped in its tracks as a trailer bearing pans and players was pulled off the road by police, allegedly for being in breach of regulations regarding permits for such vehicles.
But when the case came up on Tuesday in the San Fernando First Court, Magistrate Bekoe agreed with Hatters’ attorneys - both retained by Pan Trinbago - that the matter was wasting the court’s time.
The defendants - Hatters’ captain Arthur ‘Baldhead’ Sparks and band member Terry Blackman - were both freed, amidst peals of laughter.
It was shortly after 7 a.m. on Monday, February 15th when the band, proceeding along Chancery Lane in San Fernando, was stopped by police officers.
The six-man squad, led by Senior Superintendent Winston Corneal and including his son, special reserve policemen [SRP], Anderson Corneal, attempted to arrest the trailer-truck driver for a breach of the regulations.
According to a report from SRP Corneal, Sparks obstructed him as he was about to arrest the driver, then Blackman set up a further obstruction as the officer went to arrest Sparks. Both men were hauled away for obstructing a police officer in the course of his duty and resisting arrest.
SRP Anderson Corneal, who cited the driver as his main witness, admitted in court that he had only taken a statement from the driver on November 22, more than nine months after the actual event.
But when Snr Supt Corneal took the stand, he told the story exactly the other way around. Corneal, the father, said it was he who attempted to arrest the driver and it was Blackman (not Sparks) who obstructed him. Sparks, he said, attempted to further obstruct him when he was arresting Blackman.
In addition, he told the court that when he attempted to make the first arrest, Blackman incited the crowd and they began to sing We Not Takin’ Dat.
It was at that point that attorneys for the defendants, Panday and Ashraf, would have no more of the comedy.
Panday asked the Snr Supt if he had not heard of a calypso called We Not Takin’ Dat and if he thought that all people who sang the song were inciting crowds to anti-social behaviour.
Magistrate Bekoe had no hesitation in throwing out the case, on a request from Panday.
Pannists gathered at the Hatters pan-yard to celebrate after the case was thrown out and could not stop laughing until well into the afternoon.
Text reads here: Sparks; Misprint. [ Back: Anderson ]
| Hatters panmen freed Case turns into comedy |
| © 1999 tobagojo@gmail.com - 19991203 - 1m20071228 - 2m20140615 Historic Update: 12 July 2000; Last Update: 16 October 2015 07:36:00 TT Processed by: Jeremy G de Barry |
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