Dear Editor,
EDITOR, as a trained journalist, I quickly connected with Dale when we first met at the Kaieteur News, newsroom, in 2010. I was pointed his way by the security when I went to discuss a matter I thought was newsworthy. We hit it off immediately. I shared with him the names of media houses where I had worked and he knew several of the editors I mentioned to him. We exchanged numbers and that was the beginning of a very fruitful friendship. I will miss calling him with story ideas. From time to time I would call him and share tips I thought were newsworthy. Like this one.One May 10th 2016 a young lady named Dian Patterson from Jamaica, travelled to Guyana on the invitation of a man she had only known briefly. He too is from Jamaica. She is 22, he is 29. He contacted her in Jamaica, promised to show her around his new-found home – Guyana – and he even paid for her ticket to travel here. What she did not know is that the man she was befriending is a drug dealer. Neither did she know that he is possibly HIV positive. She did not also know that he is well known to the police in Guyana and is currently on $1,000,000 bail for trafficking in drugs, here in Guyana.
So on May 10th she went to the airport in Jamaica, collected the ticket he had purchased for her, and travelled to Guyana. On arriving in Guyana, a taxi collected her and took her to a home just off of Nelson Mandela Avenue, in West Ruimveldt. Early on the 11th of May she was told by the young man that he was taking her to neighbouring Suriname. They boarded a vehicle and were transported to Skeldon where she was told that she would be crossing into Suriname through the “back-track.”
She was carrying her backpack containing her laptop and personal items, he was carrying a suitcase containing their clothing. Unknown to her, the suitcase also contained a quantity of marijuana. As they made their way through the strategically placed customs area at the landing, the drugs were unearthed. She was not carrying the suitcase. She did not know he had placed the drugs in with their clothes. Additionally, he admitted to the arresting officers that the drugs were his. They were both arrested. At the initial court arraignment, he pleaded not guilty, thereby placing Dian is a very problematic situation. They were both remanded to prison.
Sometime around the middle of May I got a call from someone who knows the work I do and they asked if I could look into the case and offer some assistance. I was later contacted by the family of Dian, who have been in touch with me ever since. I travelled to the Berbice prison and had a meeting with Dian. It turns out that Dian is from a single-home family and a final-year nursing student, who took time off from her studies to travel to Guyana. She told me that she does not have any father/daughter relationship with her dad and that she grew up with her mom. She explained to me that she always thought of travelling, so when she was offered a ticket to travel, even though it meant interrupting her studies, she jumped at the opportunity.
Dian also told me that she never believed that her friend would have done something like that to her. She lamented with uncontrollable tears that she came to Guyana one day and was in prison the very next day. After I asked Dian some very pointed questions, I decided to assist with securing her freedom. On the 30th of May I was there in the Skeldon court with her. There was a mix-up with the evidence and the case was rescheduled to be heard on the 14th of June.
The young man was present at the hearing also and I took the opportunity to speak with him. I asked him why he was refusing to admit that the drug was his, knowing that he is complicating the case for Dian. He told me that if he admits it is his drug, he will be sentenced to the statutory three or four years in prison. He said that he was buying time, hoping to secure a lawyer. As we were speaking, he was busy making calls to some person who seemed unwilling to speak with him. I could hear him pleading with the person to get a lawyer for him. I reminded him that it was very unlikely that he will secure bail on this charge, inasmuch as he is already on bail for a similar charge.
He was unrelenting in his stance of maintaining that the drugs were not his. Frustrated, I went into the court yard and asked an attorney, who had appeared in court earlier on another matter, to give me an idea of what it would cost to represent Dian. He told me that the cost would depend on the stage of the case. I was later told that the cost would range from $75,000 to $600,000. Dian’s folks cannot afford that. So if we don’t secure an attorney to stand for Dian, I am advising that she explain her situation to the magistrate with the view of appealing to his better judgment. The prosecution is well aware of the merits of her case. I am also asking that the media houses send representatives to cover the case. Editor, the law is not an ass. It will be a travesty of justice for Dian to spend one more night in prison, when everyone connected to this story knows full well that the only thing she is guilty of is naivety. This is a case that Dale would have been interested in. I am beginning to miss him already. May his soul rest in peace.
Regards
Pastor W. P. Jeffrey
Practical Christianity Ministries
Founder/President