Apologetic American visitors fined for importing cannabis

Two American visitors were fined in Magistrates? Court yesterday after they were caught importing cannabis at the airport.

A chef from Savannah, Georgia, Lawrence Jay Gottlieb, 32, was fined $2,000 after he pleaded guilty to importing 9.45 grams of the drug on October 20.

Crown counsel Paula Tyndale said Gottlieb arrived at 9 p.m. on a commercial flight from Florida. A drug detecting dog was attracted to his back pocket as Gottlieb was waiting in a Customs control line.

The second visitor, West Hollywood, Californian Seth Daniel Casriel, 39, was fined $1,500 after he pleaded guilty to importing 3.8 grams of cannabis on October 20. Ms Tyndale said Casriel arrived on a commercial flight from Newark, New Jersey at 3.20 p.m. when a drug-sniffing dog was attracted to his pocket. ?I have a little bit of weed in my wallet,? he told a Special Customs Officer. ?It?s pot. It helps my stomach and my anxiety.?

Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo said that amount of cannabis attracted a $1,500 fine and both visitors had been apologetic to the court.

Victim refuses to testify in stabbing case

A judge declared a 33-year-old Pembroke man not guilty of stabbing a man yesterday as another prime witness to a violent crime has declined to testify in their alleged attacker?s trial.

Dwight Anthony McGowan of Cherry Hill denied wounding Earnest McQueen with the intent to do grievous bodily harm by stabbing him in the face on September 9, 2003. Mr. McQueen failed to show up to court on Monday, which he apologised for saying he was looking for a job.

Yesterday he told Puisne Justice Norma Wade-Miller: ?Forget about it. I got stabbed. He (McGowan) did stab me. I just forget about it. It?s been three years. I was angry then.?

On Monday the jury saw a photo of Mr. McQueen?s injury which showed a wound below his right eye and a doctor from King Edward VII Memorial Hospital told the jury he had been treated for a five centimetre gaping wound.

Mrs. Justice Wade-Miller told Mr. McQueen he had wasted a lot of the court?s time and money, adding: ?People must think first before they make a complaint to Police.?

The jury was instructed to deliver a verdict of not guilty due to insufficient evidence.

Murder conspiracy trial will go ahead

Bermuda?s Chief Justice ruled on Friday that a trial of two men charged with conspiring to murder five people will go ahead on November 7 without a third defendant, still waiting to be extradited from Jamaica.

Vernon Eugenie Berkley, 56 of Wilmington, St. Thomas will have to face a separate trial on the same charges, because it could take years of legal wrangling to get him back home, Chief Justice Richard Ground said.

Crown counsel Paula Tyndale applied to adjourn a trial of Kenneth Sinclair Durrant, 53, of Ord Road, Warwick and Javon Ernest Gardner, 27 of Crossfield Lane, Sandys, because of the extra costs of having to fly in several overseas witnesses for a second trial.

But Mr. Justice Ground said the interests of Durrant and Gardner ? who have already been on remand since December 2004 ? outweighed the interests of the prosecution?s in reducing costs.

He added that many of the witnesses would be exclusive to one trial and not both.

And the Chief Justice said he did not understand why extradition papers had not been served to the Jamaican authorities already, as Police had travelled to Jamaica to interview Berkley on December 14, 2004, yet had presented no new evidence to the court since that time. Berkeley could, in theory, appeal his extradition from Jamaica all the way to the UK Privy Council.

Year-long ban for high speed chase

A Smith?s teenager was fined $600 and banned from driving all vehicles for 12 months in Magistrates? Court yesterday after he admitted being in a high-speed chase with Police on Kindley Field Road.

Sean Ferreira, 18 of McGall?s Bay Lane pleaded guilty to driving dangerously in St. George?s on September 15.

Crown counsel Graveney Bannister said at 2.20 p.m. a Police Officer in an unmarked car was in heavy traffic headed westward because the Swing Bridge was open.

Mr. Bannister told the court a cycle overtook at high speed, forcing oncoming traffic had to pull to the side of the road to avoid a collision.

The officer gave chase and when Ferreira looked back and saw the car, he accelerated overtaking cars on Stonecrusher Corner.

Cars coming the other way around the corner had to swerve to avoid a collision, he said.

Ferreira was stopped before he reached the Causeway and the only reason he could think to tell the judge why he should keep his licence was for a morning drive to work.