Fubler to stand trial in November

A new trial date has been set for a nursery school teacher who had a conviction for child abuse quashed earlier this week.

The trial of Jacqueline Fubler, 29, of Pearman's Hill West, Warwick, will begin on November 1 and is expected to last three days.

Fubler was granted bail of $2,000 to appear for mention on August 24 in connection with a charge of causing grievous bodily harm to ten-month old Stephen Ebbin on July 6, 2001.

In Magistrates' Court yesterday, defence lawyer Elizabeth Christopher initially only asked for her client to appear for mention in three weeks time.

But Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo said: “I wonder what you are going to come up with in three weeks” and said he wanted to set a trial date for Fubler some time in October.

However, Ms Christopher said she had a number of Supreme Court trials that month.

“She is not in custody,” Ms Christopher said. “She served her sentence. The offence happened four years ago. This trial should be set for two weeks again because of the sophisticated nature of the case. She should not be hanging around.”

Crown counsel Shakira Dill said the trial may have to be put in front of Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner.

A former worker of the Noah's Ark Day Care Centre in Southampton, Fubler was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to Stephen Ebbin and sentenced in March by Puisne Judge Norma Wade Miller who handed down a one-year prison and probation sentence.

However, on Monday Supreme Court judge Dr. Ian Kawaley quashed the verdict and ordered a retrial.

An expensive trip

A New Yorker was ordered to pay $2,000 in fines for importing cocaine and cannabis to the Island when he appeared in Magistrates' Court this week.

Robert Truitt Gooden, 34, of New York City, pleaded guilty to importing 5.6 grams of cannabis and 0.75 grams of cocaine to Bermuda on July 28.

Crown counsel Cindy Clarke said Gooden arrived on a commercial flight from Newark, New Jersey.

A drug detection dog alerted Customs Officers to Gooden on his arrival at the Airport.

While his bags were being searched, Gooden was spotted trying to place two small plastic bags in a litter bin by the search area, she said.

The bags were seized and found to contain plant material and an off-white substance.

“The cocaine belongs to me,” he told Police.

Gooden said he had been “drugging it up” in the US for months before his arrival in Bermuda.

“God's got to stop me somewhere,” he said.

Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo said he would give Gooden an “expensive lesson” and fined him $1,000 for each count of importation or 200 days in prison.

And Mr. Tokunbo had some words of advice for another visitor fined $1,000 for importation - “keep coming back to Bermuda but leave the drugs overseas”.

Michael Craig Smith, 48, of Myrtle Beach, pleaded guilty in Magistrates' Court to importing 4.81 grams of cannabis into Bermuda on July 28. Smith arrived on a flight from North Carolina.

When an Airport Customs Officer searched his two pieces of luggage, a plastic bag containing four marijuana cigarettes was found. During a personal body search, four more cigarettes containing a green, plant-like material were found in the visitor's shoe. “It was the most shameful experience of my whole life,” Smith told Mr. Tokunbo. “I have been coming to Bermuda with my family for 22 years.”