Ex-cop in beef case must answer charge

The no case submission made by Granville DeFreitas, who is charged with having in his possession 62.5 pounds of beef, reasonably suspected of being stolen or unlawfully obtained, has been overruled.

This is the decision of magistrate Rickie Burnett, which was handed down at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on November 2. DeFreitas, a former police officer, must now present his evidence to the court, in defence of his case.

Defreitas had given, in support of his no case submission, the principles in R v Galbraith, which says if there is no evidence that the crime alleged was committed by the defendant, the magistrate should stop the case.

Magistrate Burnett, however, pointed out that the Galbraith principle goes further to state that where the prosecution’s evidence is such that its strength or weakness depends on the view to be taken of a witness’s reliability or other matters which are generally speaking within the province of the jury and where on possible viewing of the facts, there is evidence by which a jury could properly come to a conclusion, the judge should allow the matter to be tried.

Defreitas told the court he had intentions to call witnesses, but something had transpired over social media. He asked for an adjournment to engage Ronnie Marks as his lawyer.

Prosecutor Delroy Tittle, in addressing the court said, “This is a justice system, your honour. We cannot sit down and have people coming and dragging the system along; this case has been going on too long.”

Magistrate Burnett, however, granted the adjournment and stated that at times, the court has to go the extra mile to to allow each party to present their evidence to the best.

Attorney Marks was granted 48 hours to make an application for the transcript of the proceedings so far.

Defreitas was arrested and charged on June 4 for having in his possession 62.5 1bs of beef, reasonably suspected of being stolen or unlawfully obtained.(CJ)