By FARRAH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
JULIEN “Believe” Thompson “accepted responsibility” for hosting a large social gathering in violation of the emergency protocols and even offered to pay the fine right away, a senior police officer testified on Friday.
The entertainer was given a $92,000 citation after police shut down an event they claimed he hosted at Bahama Barrels earlier this year.
As the fine was not paid, Thompson was summoned to court to answer to the charge.
He pleaded not guilty to violating social gathering protocols when he appeared before Senior Magistrate Carolyn Vogt-Evans in June and the matter was then transferred to Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt for trial.
When Superintendent Sean Thompson took the stand on Friday, he said he was the officer in charge of the 8pm-4am curfew shift when the emergency orders were still in effect. He said around 7.30pm on April 25, he was informed of a large gathering and proceeded to a West Hill building “believed to be owned” by Graycliff Hotel & Restaurant with a team of police and Defence Force officers.
Supt Thompson said when they arrived, they observed several persons running out of a door of a building on the northern side of the street. He said when officers entered the building, he observed a “very large crowd” and captured a number of photos of the persons who were assembled on the first, second and third floors.
“I then asked for the person responsible for hosting the social gathering,” he told the court. “While standing up, I noticed a male pointing towards me. He said to me his name is Julien Thompson and he was responsible for the event.”
Supt Thompson said he then told the accused his party was “over 100 percent capacity” which was a breach of the emergency orders which allowed outside gatherings to be hosted with 50 percent capacity. The officer said he estimated that 400 persons attended the event, although he said about 100 of those individuals ran out when he and his team first arrived.
Some of the partygoers were not wearing masks and none of them was practising social distancing protocols, the court was told.
“They were so close until they were touching each other,” Supt Thompson said. “Once Julien accepted responsibility for the event, I told him he would be cited for the social gathering. He then replied ‘Officer, how much is the fine? I am willing to pay it now.’ He also admitted to being at fault for having persons not socially distanced.”
The officer said after he called a police constable who had a citation book, the accused “once again” told him he did not want to receive a criminal record because he was an entertainer.
“While the constable was writing up the ticket for the gathering of 300 persons, Julien Thompson said again to me that he would like to pay for the ticket now,” Supt Thompson continued. “I said to him that he don’t know how much the ticket is and to wait until the officer is completed writing it up…He was cited $300 per person which totaled $92,000. I asked him if he still wanted to pay for the ticket now and he said to me: ‘All of that?’”
Supt Thompson said after the citation was issued, he returned to the Cable Beach police station where he extracted the images he took at the event from his phone and printed them for “future evidential purposes”.
On Friday, the prosecution made a formal application to have those photographs entered into evidence.
The matter continues on November 23.
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