The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A FORMER police officer and now attorney yesterday testified how she was made to bend over while naked for correctional officers to examine her private parts as a result of her being remanded due to a magistrate's inability to grant her bail.

Maria Daxon, taking the witness stand before Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson, said the standard search at the Fox Hill facility, which included her having the underside of her breasts examined, was one of the most "degrading" things she has had to experience.

Ms Daxon, in her sworn affidavit, also said upon being admitted to the female dormitory of the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services in 2016, she was subjected to "severely inhumane and deplorable conditions," including unsanitary bathroom facilities.

Her testimony was in reference to the one night she spent in custody in September 2016 after being denied bail before her trial over two counts of intentional libel concerning alleged statements written about former Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade and former Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Leon Bethell.

When initially arraigned before then-Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes, the attorney elected to have the matter heard in the Magistrate's Court and pleaded not guilty to the allegations.

Ms Daxon's attorney at the time, Glendon Rolle, requested her release on bail pending the hearing of her matter, and the prosecutor at the time, Assistant Superintendent Marlon Fullford, did not object to bail.

However, ASP Fullford noted that the 2016 amendment to the Bail Act under the former Christie administration made the charge of intentional libel a non-bailable offence in Magistrate's Court. And as a result, bail was denied and Ms Daxon was remanded to BDCS until her bail application could be set for hearing before the Supreme Court.

Ms Daxon said she was afforded some good treatment in that she was allowed to go to the Fox Hill facility in a car as opposed to the police bus. She also said while both her hands and feet were cuffed before her initial arraignment, her feet weren't after she had been remanded.

Nonetheless, upon her arrival at the prison, she said she was escorted inside the female section where the office is located. She was asked several questions, including one about her asthma, and was allowed to keep her inhaler.

After that, she said officials told her they had to search her. She said a female correctional officer subsequently took her into a room, where she said one of the "most degrading" things happened to her.

"I had to take my hands and put them in the front of me, and bend over," she said. "She had to look up into my private parts and she tell me lift up my breast to make sure that I didn't have anything underneath my breast.

"…I never thought this would've happened to me...it was horrible."

The element about the search was not expressed in her sworn affidavit, and when asked why by her attorney Fred Smith, QC, Ms Daxon said she didn't feel good about it, and didn't want the attorney taking down the information, Akeira Martin, to hear what she went through.

Ms Daxon said two female officers subsequently took her to the dormitory where she would sleep for that night. Upon arrival at the dorm, Ms Daxon said she was told she had to sleep in a particular bunk bed.

She said the bunk had no mattress, only the iron wire frame. However, she said she was told to use a mattress that was leaning up against the wall.

Ms Daxon said an old schoolmate subsequently helped her in lifting the mattress onto the top bunk. Ms Daxon said her old schoolmate also gave her a pillow and a sheet to put over the mattress because it "wasn't clean at all."

Ms Daxon said the mattress had stains on it that suggested that someone had used it "over and over again." She said she would have thrown that kind of mattress in the garbage if it had been in her house.

Ms Daxon also said before she went into the dormitory, the female prison officers who knew her identity advised her not to tell the female inmates her background. Thus, she said she had to keep her previous and current occupation a secret because the prison officers said they didn't want any "chaos."

Ms Daxon also said her schoolmate, who assisted her, did not know she was a police officer and attorney.

When asked by Mr Smith how it felt for prison officials not to separate her from the general inmate population given her former occupation as an officer, Ms Daxon said it felt "intentional," and that they didn't care about her safety or welfare.

"It was like my 25 years in the system was like nothing," she said.

The following day, September 2, Ms Daxon succeeded in her bail application before Justice Bernard Turner, and was granted bail in the amount of $100. Additionally, a nolle prosequi (no prosecution order) was later issued by the attorney general in the matter, thus discontinuing the criminal libel case against her.

The matter continues.

Ms Daxon's as well as self-styled activist Omar Archer's constitutional challenge to their denial of bail is a part of former Cabinet minister Shane Gibson's application for constitutional relief concerning multiple counts of bribery with which he was charged last year.

Gibson is not seeking any relief from the application, however, he remains on the application essentially as a respondent due to him being the original applicant.

Mr Smith, who also represents Mr Archer, filed affidavits in connection with Gibson's relief application. Mr Munroe told The Tribune previously that he and Mr Smith have agreed that their respective matters should be heard together, given they cover the same material.

The 2016 amendment to the Bail Act made charges of intentional libel, assault, stealing and a number of other previously bailable offences non-bailable in Magistrate's Court. It resulted in an increase in the number of people being remanded to the Department of Correctional Services and having to apply for a bond in the Supreme Court.

The amendment did not return the power of magistrates to grant bail for the offences of drug possession with intent to supply, certain firearms matters, rape, housebreaking, attempted murder and threats of death.