Sascha Wil­son

Sus­pend­ed po­lice of­fi­cer Curt Tees­dale would have to face a judge and ju­ry on three charges ac­cus­ing him of rent­ing his po­lice-is­sued re­volver and am­mu­ni­tion.Tees­dale, who has 25 years' ser­vice, was com­mit­ted yes­ter­day by Se­nior Mag­is­trate Ra­jen­dra Ram­bachan to stand tri­al in the San Fer­nan­do High Court.Ram­bachan over­ruled a no-case sub­mis­sion by Tees­dale's at­tor­ney Richard Valere. He ruled that the State had led suf­fi­cient ev­i­dence against him for his com­mit­tal.

The pros­e­cu­tion did not ob­ject to bail.Tees­dale, 47, who was last as­signed to the Mon Re­pos Po­lice Sta­tion, was grant­ed $30,000 bail, with his moth­er and sis­ter sign­ing as his bailors. The mag­is­trate said he had no prob­lem with Tees­dale's court at­ten­dance.It was in 2009 that Tees­dale was charged for the of­fences, which al­leged­ly took place on Ju­ly 3, 2009, on Har­ris Prom­e­nade, San Fer­nan­do.

The charges al­leged that he trans­ferred a quan­ti­ty of nine-mil­lime­tre am­mu­ni­tion and a nine-mil­lime­tre Smith & Wes­son pis­tol, the prop­er­ty of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice, to civil­ian Jarvis Mack.The third charge al­leged that Tees­dale, as a mem­ber of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice, mis­be­haved by trans­fer­ring his gun and am­mu­ni­tion to Mack, con­trary to com­mon law.Tees­dale opt­ed not to say any­thing or call wit­ness­es.He said he would write to the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions with­in ten days to pro­vide de­tails of an al­i­bi.

State at­tor­ney Trevor Jones pros­e­cut­ed the mat­ter by way of pa­per com­mit­tal pro­ceed­ings against Tees­dale in the San Fer­nan­do First Mag­is­trates Court last Jan­u­ary. Mack was the State's main wit­ness.When Tees­dale first ap­peared in court in 2009 he was grant­ed $125,000 bail.Cpl Neil Moses laid the charges.