Sascha Wil­son

A war­rant was yes­ter­day is­sued for the ar­rest of a po­lice sergeant on a rape charge af­ter he failed to turn up for his mat­ter in the San Fer­nan­do Mag­is­trates' Court. Se­nior Mag­is­trate In­dra Ramoo-Haynes is­sued the war­rant for Sgt Dane Sorzano, 45, af­ter his name was called on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions in the cor­ri­dors of the cour­t­house with no re­sponse. She or­dered no bail up­on his ar­rest.

Sorzano, a for­mer pros­e­cu­tor in the San Fer­nan­do Traf­fic Court, is out on $30,000 bail on a charge of hav­ing sex­u­al in­ter­course with a 15-year-old girl. At his last court ap­pear­ance in Jan­u­ary, Sorzano was suc­cess­ful in get­ting one of the con­di­tions of his bail, re­port­ing to the Fyz­abad Po­lice Sta­tion twice a week, re­moved.

Sorzano's ap­pli­ca­tion was re­sist­ed by State at­tor­ney Trevor Jones who said it was nec­es­sary to be aware of the po­lice­man's lo­ca­tion. He pre­sent­ed le­gal au­thor­i­ties to sup­port his ap­pli­ca­tion. How­ev­er, act­ing Deputy Chief Mag­is­trate Ra­jen­dra Ram­bachan grant­ed the re­quest, say­ing "I am not re­al­ly see­ing a ba­sis for the State to main­tain its re­quest (for him to re­port)."

The mag­is­trate, how­ev­er, or­dered Sorzano to in­form the court and the po­lice if he in­tende to change his ad­dress from Hick­ling Street, Siparia. Sorzano is ac­cused of hav­ing sex­u­al in­ter­course with the teenag­er on April 3, 2011 at La­dy Hailes Av­enue, San Fer­nan­do. He was charged by In­sp Zamsheed Mo­hammed.

Ram­bachan, who pre­sides in the First Court, was ab­sent from court yes­ter­day. Ramoo-Haynes had stood down the mat­ter on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions, or­der­ing that his name be called loud and clear. She is­sued the war­rant short­ly be­fore 11 am. Sorzano, who has 15 years ser­vice, had not re­tained an at­tor­ney to rep­re­sent him in the mat­ter.