50 Pending court cases in the Cayman Islands have been stopped or stayed by the Summary Court as a result of prosecution and police failures to pursue them says Cayman lawyer Peter Polack.

The 50 cases of mostly traffic offences include such serious offences as driving while intoxicated and minor offences such as no divers down flag.

The cases stretch from 2006 to 2010 and were all stopped on 23^rd June 2014.

Please see attachments below. Click on the image to enlarge.

In January 2011 the RCIPS issued a list revealing the nature of crimes involved in over four dozen Summary Court/criminal procedure code cases that were not prosecuted. The RCIPS said this was a result of the statute of limitations expiring, as well as cases not making it to court on time. The list represents the time period between August 2005 and August 2010.

In a Freedom of Information Request by the then “Caymanian Compass” the document showed “three cases of assault occasioning actual bodily harm did not proceed because in one of the cases the accused was not interviewed by the investigating officer, while the other one was statute barred because charges were laid late and the file had expired. No reason was stated in the crime report for why the third assault case was barred.”

Even worse the article stated:

“Seven cases of consumption of ganja were statute barred. Of those, one could not proceed because the Legal Department ruled, incorrectly, that the file was statute barred. Reasons for why four of the consumption of ganja cases were statute barred were “not sated in the crime report”. Reasons for the two other cases being statute barred were listed as “charges out of time” and “time limit expired”.

“Of three cases of disorderly conduct that did not make it to court, one was statute barred because officers did not provide statements in timely fashion. Reasons for the others were not stated in the crime report.

“Of four cases of suspicion of consumption of a controlled drug, one did not make it to court because an “officer failed to provide further statements.” Reasons for the other three not proceeding to court were not stated in the crime report.

“Three cases of damage to property were listed. One did not make it to court because of the file being submitted late. In another of the cases, the accused was released under section 34 of the Criminal Procedure Code and in the other, charges were withdrawn at court due to six months having elapsed.

“There was one case of rape in which the report states, “the charges ran out of time”, while a case of theft could not proceed because the offender left the jurisdiction. The report listed 15 cases of possession of items ranging from imitation firearms to cocaine with intent to supply that could not proceed as a result of the six-month limitation expiring.

Of these, reasons for six were not listed in the crime report and the others were as a”result of officers not providing statements in a timely fashion or the time limit expiring.”

To read the whole article and there is more go to: http://www.compasscayman.com/story.aspx?id=46655

As we reported yesterday the Justice Minister of Jamaica recently announced he would be seeking to have legislation passed to throw out old cases starting with less serious offences after two years as the Constitution requires accused persons to have trial within a reasonable time.

This would free up a lot of resources in circumstances where there are no new dedicated court facilities on the horizon and defendants are seeing delays of over a year in their cases.

See also iNews Cayman story published October 27 2014 “Trash Old Cases – Justice Minister wants lingering legal disputes thrown out after two years” at: http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/trash-old-cases-justice-minister-wants-lingering-legal-disputes-thrown-out-after-two-years/