The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON ljohnson@tribunemedia.net CHIEF Magistrate Roger Gomez is confident that the number of "kinks" there are to work out at the new Nassau Street Magistrate's Court Complex will be dealt with within the coming weeks. Speaking with The Tribune about the new facility that opened officially on Monday, the chief magistrate asked the public to be patient and understanding as they sort out the issues with which they are currently dealing. "Everybody," he said, "is getting used to the building. It's a large building, a lot of courtrooms. It takes a while to get used to exactly where each court is." "We're still in the process of arranging the courts and making some changes to the different courts. A trial and error sort of thing." The new state of the art three-story complex, which houses 12 courts, has holding cells for prisoners appearing in court, offices for the respective courts, an elevator, and metal detector machines at the entrance to the ground floor. Noticeably absent in the building, however, is the prosecution's office where police prosecutors deal with a great number of case files for the various courts. The buzz about the new building faded when this and other problems arose on opening day. In the words of attorney Stanley Rolle, it was "frustration galore." "It's just not organized," he added. Others who did not want to go on record, said that the complex should have been opened for use when all problems had been dealt with. Chief Magistrate Gomez, speaking about the first day said: "It wasn't too bad, better than I expected. It was rough, but not too bad." When asked to compare the new location to Bank Lane, he smiled and shook his head. "There's no comparison, no comparison. This is more or less palatial compared to Bank Lane. We're glad to be in a state-of-the-art building." Gratitude aside, he said that "there are a lot of kinks to work out," but "I think eventually we're going to get them sorted out." Security was the main concern, while the other two were parking and phone lines. "We're very concerned about it (security), because of our location. At Bank Lane, we were protected by a great deal of police presence." "Now that we have all the courts in one location, we would need more police." "We also don't have telephones. We were promised that the lines would've been done by last week. That isn't the case so we have to use our cell phone." He considered it a "real handicap for the court" because people were calling constantly, "apparently word didn't get out that we were moving to Nassau Street." He said they will be dealing with cases and court should be in full swing and functional in the weeks to come. "We ask that the public bear with us as we try to get everything sorted out," he said.