Ray John and Shakema Charles appeared before court yesterday

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By Tahna Weston

tahna.weston@antiguaobserver.com

Lawyers representing fraud-accused suspended Superintendent of Police Ray John and his former partner Shakema Charles have forced an adjournment of the committal proceedings with notice that they intend to make a ‘no case’ submission.

This has further delayed Magistrate Conliffe Clarke in making a determination as to whether there is sufficient evidence to recommit the matter for trial in the High Court.

The matter came up yesterday in the St John’s Magistrates’ Court where both accused, their attorneys and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shannon Gittens were present.

John and Charles, who previously faced charges of conspiring with St Vincent resident Lonzel Jones to forge passport bio pages using unauthorised Multi-Layered Infilling Sheets between January 1 and April 7 2018, have been recharged with conspiracy to forge passport bio pages using unauthorised sheets.

John has been further charged with two counts of receiving the aforementioned sheets.

DPP Gittens told the court that the prosecution was ready to proceed with the matter. However, attorney Michael Archibald, who is representing Charles, said based on discussions with John’s legal representative Hugh Marshall Jr, an adjournment was being requested to make their submissions.

Kema Benjamin and Jonathan Marshall, who attended the proceedings on behalf of Marshall Jr, requested a date in September by which to file submissions.

However, Magistrate Clarke was concerned that the date would clash with the opening of the September Criminal Assizes, which he subsequently found out from the DPP was not in early September, as is the norm, but closer to the end of the month.

Therefore the magistrate’s concern of having a clear date to render his decision and to ask for clarity on any submissions made, if necessary, was put to rest.

The matter has now been set for September 12, with the defence expected to file their submission with the court by August 19 and the DPP responding by August 29.

This then gives Clarke a seven to 10-day window to make his decision as to whether to commit the duo again.

John and Charles in early January this year faced a judge-only trial, which ran for over three weeks, in reference to the alleged passport fraud.

However, High Court Judge Justice Tunde Bakre freed them on the previous charges after agreeing with their attorneys following submissions that he had no jurisdiction to hear the matter without a jury.