The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

“The police got me! The man them got me!” a policewoman shouted into her cellphone as she resisted arrest, moments after a package of cocaine dropped from under her skirt, a jury was told yesterday.

Sgt Shakiel Riley, who arrested dismissed constable Toni Sweeting, 27, in a rest-room at the Lynden Pindling International Airport earlier this year, testified in the Magistrate’s Court trial that as the accused struggled as she rushed to answer her phone, a second package containing cocaine was found on her.

Sweeting, with her 33-year-old brother Delano Sweeting and 33-year old Jamaican Conrad Campbell, face four drug charges in connection with an April 19 cocaine raid at the Lynden Pindling International Airport.

Sgt Riley said while on duty at the airport on the night in question, she and a police corporal acting on intelligence went to the security check point area where they eventually led Sweeting into a restroom.

She said they struggled to arrest Sweeting before her cell phone rang, prompting her to “aggressively” pull away from them and grab her phone off the restroom table.

Sgt Riley added that though Sweeting said “yes” when asked if she had a police weapon, they found no weapon on her during their search.

Earlier, a police corporal had testified that he gave Sweeting a gun before her shift began on the night in question. But when Mr Ducille pressed him about why he failed to include that information on his report written after the incident, he said “the prosecution” told him to say he gave Sweeting a gun.

In response, Mr Ducille said: “No further questions.”

Unlike her alleged accomplices who were granted bail earlier this year, Sweeting has been on remand at Her Majesty’s Prison since her arrest because she has been deemed a flight risk.

Before resuming yesterday before Magistrate Andrew Forbes, the drug trial had repeatedly been adjourned without progress.

As a consequence, Supreme Court Justice Bernard Taylor said earlier this month that if the trial was not completed by December 18th, Sweeting would be released on $100,000 bail on condition she report to police daily.

Yesterday, prosecution lawyers requested an adjournment after defence lawyer Murrio Ducille made several legal arguments pertaining to the line of questioning they had taken with the witnesses.

Sweeting is, therefore, expected to be granted bail when she goes before Justice Turner on Thursday.

The drug trial was adjourned to April 16, 2014.