Damian Shimar Griffith returned to the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court today in the HMP Dodds prison bus, but left the courtroom accompanied by two emergency medical technicians from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
They took Griffith to an ambulance at the bottom of the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court No. 1 step. The accused, of Mayers Land, Lower Richmond Gap, St Michael, is charged with stealing a bag and its contents, valued $1 045, belonging to Rachel Maynard.
He was remanded by Magistrate Douglas Frederick 28 days ago, after the prosecutor offered several grounds of objection to his bail. The prosecution’s objections continued today, when Griffith returned to court. His attorney Eli Edwards applied for bail but this was denied.
Edwards submitted that persons were granted bail for more serious offences. He stressed that Edwards is employed as a labourer and since his incarceration, it had affected his mother and his girlfriend, who miscarried.
The accused himself told the court that he was a counsellor for a programme called Stop The Violence, which went around to schools trying to prevent school children from joining gangs.
When the magistrate asked for evidence of this, another handcuffed accused man said, “it true”. When asked what Griffith was doing there then, that man said: “Everybody don’t hear the same way.”
The magistrate then told accused Griffith that if he could produce either his employer and/or the principals of the schools where the programme existed, he would very likely grant him bail.
When Griffith enquired as to whether those parties could come today, the court determined that it would not be likely and adjourned the matter until June 10.
Griffith left the dock and returned to a bench but later stood up.
That was when prison officer Roderick Haynes went over to him and soon after, Griffith began falling to the ground, saying he “can’t take this no more”.