Mc Coy charged with unlawful assault, threatening language
PRESS and Publicity Officer in the Office of the President, Kwame Mc Coy, appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry yesterday, on charges of unlawful assault and using threatening language. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges, one of which stated that, on October 25, he unlawfully assaulted Natalia Ross to cause her actual bodily harm.
Another charge said, on November 12, he unlawfully assaulted Clifton Stewart and also threatened him, in Georgetown, too.
Police Sergeant Gordon Mansfield, prosecuting, said the allegations stemmed from altercations connected to the nailing of political party posters on utility poles.
According to him, on October 25, the defendant observed persons placing posters over People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s (PPP/C) and he used abusive language to them.
The prosecutor said an argument later ensued between Mc Coy and Ross; subsequently, the defendant drove his vehicle hitting the virtual complainant and rendering her unconscious.
In the other case, the prosecutor said Stewart was on Norton Street when he saw the defendant giving orders to some people to paste (PPP/C) posters over A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) advertisements, and when the virtual complainant rebuked him, he became annoyed.
The prosecutor said Mc Coy told the virtual complainant he was a marked man and he began to take pictures of Stewart, who became fearful and went away but Mc Coy and some women followed him and an argument arose.
During the argument, the prosecutor said the defendant took a gun and lashed the virtual complainant on the left side of his head, resulting in injuries.
Senior Counsel Bernard De Santos, for the defence declared that the related facts were contrived and requested that the defendant be released on his own recognisance.
The lawyer said Mc Coy,who was contacted by telephone and told to make a court appearance, did so willingly and is not a flight risk.
De Santos submitted that the incidents occurred during the “silly season” of the elections campaign.
However, when the magistrate placed Mc Coy on self-bail and ordered him to lodge his passport, another attorney-at-law Mr. Basil Williams stood up in the courtroom and demanded that the defendant’s gun be seized, as well.
Williams argued that the defendant should have been charged for attempted murder but De Santos insisted that the other lawyer has no say in the matter.
It was then Williams indicated he was watching the interest of the virtual complainant, Stewart.
Following that intervention, Mc Coy was put on a bond to keep the peace and the cases will be called, again, on February 21, 2012.