A St Ann based police constable was freed of charges of accepting a bribe, arising out of a case involving a robot taxi operator on the Moneague Bypass in October 2013.
Constable Audley Denton, a traffic officer stationed at the Moneague Police Station, was accused of accepting a bribe, in order to prevent a taxi operator from paying a ticket the constable had issued to him, for operating a taxi without a road licence along the Moneague Bypass.
Constable Denton was charged with “solicitation indirectly”, based on allegations that he acted through a third party in indirectly soliciting a bribe from the said illegal taxi operator at a later time in Spanish Town, St. Catherine.
At trial on Monday January 16, 2017, St. Ann-based attorney E. Elleston Webster, appearing before judge Tara Reid-Kerr in the Half Way Tree Criminal Court, successfully argued on behalf of his client, Constable Audley Denton, that the evidence presented by the prosecution did not support this allegation.
It was being alleged that Constable Denton was said to have “solicited indirectly a sum of $6,000 from the motorist”. However, Mr Webster showed that the Crown was unable to put forward evidence of Constable Denton committing any aspect of this offence at all. Further, Mr. Webster successfully argued that the prosecution was not able to show that Constable Denton instructed anyone to act on his behalf to solicit a bribe, nor were they able to show that Constable Denton collected any sums from any party in relation to this matter.
Mr. Webster highlighted that the evidence led by the Crown, actually only illustrated a strong refusal by Constable Denton to even have any conversation relating to engaging in any illegal activity. He argued that the prosecution failed to show by evidence that any third party was in fact acting on Constable Denton’s behalf.
In this case, the investigating officer admitted to the courts that he did not read multiple statements in their entirety. The investigating officer further admitted that he did not listen to the tape recording evidence in its entirety. Tape recordings in which Constable Denton stated vehemently “don’t bring no money argument to me”.
The tape recordings revealed that Constable Denton told the complainant repeatedly to go to the police station for any queries and refused to even meet with said illegal taxi operator/complainant. Mr Webster put it to the court that, had this investigating officer done his job in its entirety, Constable Denton would not have been facing trial for a crime that he did not commit.
In his closing arguments, Defence Counsel E. Elleston Webster stated that there seemed to be an aspect of confusion on the prosecution’s part, as it was illogical for the prosecution to have alleged evidence of a direct solicitation and then lay charges of indirect solicitation.
Judge Reid-Kerr remarked that the Crown did not prove any connection between the accused, Constable Denton, and the complainant and that neither of the Crown’s witnesses were credible – both of them told different stories.
Constable Denton was found not guilty in the Half Way Tree Criminal Court, on Monday, January 17, 2017.
