'Inexcusable'- that is the word the Chief Justice used this morning to described the Commissioner of Police's month long refusal to charge one of his constables, Jesus Marroquin, for the murder of a mental patient. As we've reported, on November 10th Director of Public Prosecutions Kirk Anderson instructed commissioner gerald westby to charge marroquin for killing Egbert Gordon Jr. in 2005. Westby however ignored the directive until yesterday when Gordon's parents, through human rights attorney Antonette Moore, applied for leave to seek judicial review of the COKPOL's refusal. Here's more.
Keith Swift Reporting,
On September 27th of 2005 29-year-old Egbert Gordon Jr. was fatally shot inside
this house in the Los Lagos housing community by a police officer. Gordon, who was a mental patient, broke into the house and made a home for himself inside. Without a doubt, Egbert Jr. was demented as we found out when we got a peek inside the home and into his world the day following the shooting.
[September 28th, 2005]
For proof you need only look at this shelf turned shrine in honor of the home owner's honor in the living room. Everything on here, with the exception of the framed picture in the rear and three candles to the top, were put here by the burglar. Her pictures are wiped out to protect her privacy but he put her jewelry, trinkets, small mementos, medicine, and even her plane ticket were placed here as an eerie tribute. And then to one of the bedrooms where he was apparently living. He had a television with Play Station 2 controls, he had re-wired the cable, and for proof that he had taken up residence - here are ashes from a cigarette and marijuana joint. And in a bizarre twist, in the kitchen he placed this portrait of the last supper over what we could assume was his last meal.
End September 28th, 2005 [Click here for the full story]
It was his last meal, and day, there when yard cleaners discovered him on September 27th of 2005. The police were called and that is when he barricaded himself in one of the bedrooms. He was ordered to come out but he didn't and police say they were forced to shoot when they saw what police first said was a shiny object but later said it was actually a rusty point 25 pistol.
And so while the Police Department threw it aside and said it was a justified shooting - the DPP had one word for it: murder and he ordered the police to arrest PC Jesus Marroquin. The police however blankly refused to charge Marroquin which brings us to this morning. His father is Egbert Gordon Sr..
Egbert Gordon Sr., Father of Deceased
"We came to court because it took a long time. It has been over a year and it is over a month now that the DPP ahs issued his directive so we didn't have any other choice."
In fact attorney Antonette Moore says it was the police who had no choice. She says Commissioner of Police Gerald Westby was forced to arrest Marroquin
after they applied for the leave to seek judicial review.
Antonette Moore, Human Rights Attorney
"It is rather apparent to all of us that the only reason the Commissioner of Police did in fact now have Marroquin arrested and charged was because the Gordons brought this case to court and the case is now withdrawn, however the precedent has been set, the court has spoken and we can only hope that justice will prevail in the end."
Keith Swift,
Why did it have to come to this?
Antonette Moore,
"That's the question on all of our minds. It had to come to this because the Commissioner of Police, apparently, was disregarding, as the court said, deplorably disregarding the law."
And that law according to the Chief Justice is simple: the DPP instructs and the police arrest. According to the CJ - the constitution empowers the DPP to order the arrest of anyone and in his words "the police can't second guess the DPP."
Antonette Moore,
"It should never have to come to this and the Chief Justice just said that. This type of application should never have to be made. Citizens of this country should know that the police are going to protect them, that the police are going to carry out the law."
A law this man of the law will now have to answer to.
The Police Department was represented by crown counsel Andrea McSweaney who apologized to the Gordon family on behalf of the Police Department. But that didn't win her any points with the CJ. Conteh says the entire incident "speaks sadly of the state of affairs between the Commissioner of Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions."
