Chief Magistrate Candia Carette-George has denied a bail application by lawyers Gina Abraham-Thomas and Wayne Norde on behalf of US national 25-year-old Kevin Patrick Etienne.
Etienne along with co-accused former school Reneker Blanc of Coulibistrie was arrested at the Woodbridge Bay Port in Fond Cole on September 30, 2022, and slapped with trafficking of 406 rounds of 9mm ammunition and 20 -9mm pistols.
On Friday, October 7, 2022, despite its plea for denial of bail for Blanc by the prosecution, the court stated that it was satisfied she would surrender to custody and granted her the sum of $100,000.00
In his attempt at trying to convince the court to grant bail to his client, Norde stated that he was “a businessman by profession, has a fixed place address in Dominica and although he is a US citizen by birth, he has strong ties to Dominica having attended the Morne Prosper Primary School and the St. Mary’s Academy.
He admitted to the court that based on Section 4 “Right to bail”, his client, based on the offence for which he is charged is “not entitled to bail as a right.”
However, he added that the court has a discretion under Section 7 (1) (2) of the Bail Act which states that in granting bail, the court must among other things be satisfied that the defendant will surrender to custody.
“We are saying that he will surrender to the custody of the court, and further the prosecution has no evidence that while on bail he will re-offend. We are also saying that his co-accused was granted bail by this same court, and it is in the public’s interest to grant him bail,” Norde stated as he cited and furnished the court with several authorities to support his claim.
“Someone is presumed innocent until proven guilty, we are asking that bail be granted to him with or without conditions, is it necessary to keep this man in custody until his trial, I say no,” Norde said.
As he continued his impassionate plea, he told the court, that “bail should not be looked at as a punishment and his client was willing to report every day and be placed on a curfew if necessary”.
“This court and the High Court have granted bail to several persons on gun and ammunition related offences, and for murder and rape justice is not sexist, racist and does not discriminate, justice is fairness,” he said. He also gave notice to the court that he will be going to the High Court to challenge an accused statement given by his client which will be a long court delay.
But in his rebuttal, prosecuting inspector Davidson Cadette relied heavily also on the Bail Act Section 7 (1) (d) and told the court that ‘it was not in the public’s interest to grant him bail.” He also cited and furnished the court with several authorities to bolster his arguments.
“Trafficking of firearm and ammunitions is a serious offence and carries a fine of $700,000.00 and a long jail sentence if found guilty, we are also asking the court to look at the prevalence of such offences in Dominica over the past ten months,” he said.
He told the court that the defendant was a “potential flight risk” and there was a loud public outcry in Dominica for such offences.
“This matter came to the court as a result of information obtained by the police, he and his co-accused who are directors of ETN Charitable Foundation Inc a nonprofit organization took advantage of the public’s trust and used this non-profit organization for criminal activities, the public has been wronged,” he stated.
In handing down her decision, Chief Magistrate Carette-George stated that she must look at the “seriousness of the offence and the penalty attached and the prevalence of such offences in Dominica.”
His co-accused she stated was granted bail because she has a fixed Dominican address but Etienne’s address is in Texas United States. “He is a flight risk and will not surrender to the court custody if granted bail and as a result bail is denied,’ she said.