An­na-Lisa Paul

An ap­pli­ca­tion to re­spond to the pros­e­cu­tor's clos­ing sub­mis­sions in the tri­al in which so­ca star Machel Mon­tano and three oth­ers are ac­cused of as­sault­ing four peo­ple out­side the Zen night­club in 2007 has been de­nied by Mag­is­trate Mau­reen Ba­boolal-Gafoor.

Pre­sid­ing in the Sev­enth Mag­is­trates Court on Mon­day, Ba­boolal-Gafoor told Mon­tano's at­tor­ney Dana See­ta­hal, SC, and pros­e­cu­tor George Bus­by that the ap­pli­ca­tion for the re­join­der had been re­fused. See­ta­hal had made the ap­pli­ca­tion on April 2, af­ter Bus­by's three-day clos­ing sub­mis­sion.

Mon­tano, the 2011 So­ca Monarch, is joint­ly charged with fel­low artiste Joel "Zan" Fezeck, song­writer and pro­duc­er Ker­nel Roberts (son of late ca­lyp­so leg­end Ald­wyn "Kitch­en­er" Roberts) and 2011 Young King Rod­ney "Ben­jai" Le Blanc of as­sault­ing Rus­sell Pol­lon­ais and Bran­dis Brown.

Mon­tano, 36, al­so faces ad­di­tion­al charges of as­sault­ing Janelle Lee Chee and Ger­ard Bowrin, and us­ing ob­scene lan­guage. The charges stem from an al­leged fra­cas out­side the night­club at Keate Street, Port-of-Spain, on April 26, 2007. Bus­by de­liv­ered his fi­nal sub­mis­sions dur­ing a five-hour-long hear­ing on April 2.

The tri­al be­gan in 2008, but it will not be un­til Sep­tem­ber that the ac­cused will know their fate. Ow­ing to the amount of ev­i­dence she has to re­view be­fore mak­ing a fi­nal de­ci­sion, Ba­boolal-Gafoor ad­journed the mat­ter to Sep­tem­ber 14 at 10 am for judg­ment.