A woman police constable (WPC), who was the State’s main witness against six of her colleagues who were eventually acquitted of murdering three friends from Moruga in 2011, reappeared in court yesterday for conspiring to pervert the course of public justice.
WPC Nicole Clement appeared before Justice Mauriceia Joseph in the San Fernando High Court.
During the brief hearing, Clement’s lawyer Michael Rooplal indicated that she was awaiting the outcome of her civil lawsuit against the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) over her plea agreement discussions related to financial support after the trial.
While Rooplal admitted that the judge did not set a firm date for delivering judgment in that case, he noted that she promised to do so in May.
Justice Joseph adjourned Clement’s case to June 24 for a status update.
Clement was initially charged alongside Sgt Khemraj Sahadeo and PCs Renaldo Reviero, Glenn Singh, Roger Nicholas, Safraz Juman, Antonio Ramadin with murdering Abigail Johnson, Kerron Eccles, and Alana Duncan.
The vehicle the friends were travelling in was shot at by the officers at the corner of Rochard Douglas Road and Gunness Trace in Barrackpore on July 22, 2011.
The officers claimed that the trio shot at them and they returned fire in self-defence.
Clement was eventually given immunity for the murder charges and was instead charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice in exchange for her testimony against her former colleagues.
Clement testified during the preliminary inquiry of the case and claimed that they were targeting Duncan’s common-law husband Shumba James, who was known to have used the vehicle they were driving in and was allegedly wanted for a series of murders.
She claimed that Eccles and Duncan survived the initial volley of gunshots and were taken to a remote location off the M2 Ring Road in Woodland where they were allegedly executed.
However, when she was summoned to testify before High Court Judge Carla Brown-Antoine late last year, she refused to participate due to “safety and security” concerns.
She was deemed a hostile witness and her testimony during the inquiry was instead read to the jury.
On November 25, last year, all six officers were acquitted by the jury, which deliberated for less than an hour.
Several days after the outcome of the trial, Justice Frank Seepersad dismissed her case against the Ministry of National Security over the removal of her security detail when she was in a safe house in the Justice Protection Programme.
Clement’s case before Justice Joseph is being prosecuted by Chenelle Moe.