Fearful complainant wants case thrown out

Senior Parish Judge Lori-Anne Cole-Montaque on Tuesday denied a request by a complainant -- who is the victim of a $900,000 embezzlement scheme -- to discontinue the case against the man who wronged him.

The complainant told the judge that he did not wish to have the matter continued, as he and his family were being threatened.

"Your Honour, it has been over a year now and it seems that the defendant, I think he is getting extremely frustrated," the complainant said in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.

"I have received information that he put my wife and I down in the grave. I have reported it to the police and we have talked about it and I don't think we want to continue with the matter," he said.

The defendant in the matter, Andre Henry, has been in custody since he pleaded guilty to embezzlement and simple larceny last year. He has paid back $400,000 of the $900,000 that was embezzled.

FRUSTRATED

Henry told the judge that he had grown frustrated while in the lock-ups, as he questioned the reason he was remanded after securing employment to continue restitution. He is claimed to have used the words, "Come een like dem wah dead" -- in reference to the complainant -- but said that his intention was not to threaten him.

"I never meant it, surprisingly, it go to the ear of the complainant. The officer came to the lock-up and brought it to me, and I addressed it, and I apologised for it. I never meant it that way. Really and truly, I was frustrated and I am sorry for that," Henry told the court.

However, Cole-Montaque said she does not take words as wind and stated that when certain offences are committed, the court should position itself to send the correct message to the society.

"Even in your admission, there is no way, no way, I will allow you to walk through the front door. You are turning it around to make it look like you are the victim," the judge said.

"This is the victim, this is the man who was embezzled! This is the man who lost, he and his family, financially. So, this crying in the lock-up 'woe is me' and 'what is this I am facing', you know what you should have said, 'shame on me to abuse the people who entrusted me in their workplace'," the senior judge stressed.

Cole-Montaque, who ordered Henry remanded in custody until June 13 when he is to be sentenced, said that the decision to have the matter ended is not left up to the complainant but rests in the State's hands.