Reggae Artist JahDore Acquitted of Assaulting Police at Gordon Town Station
Reggae artist JahDore (Sean McDonald) was found not guilty of assaulting a constable in a 2019 incident at Gordon Town Police Station. Chief Parish Judge Broderick delivered the verdict.
Reggae Artist JahDore Cleared of Police Assault Charges
Reggae artist JahDore, whose legal name is Sean McDonald, was found not guilty on Friday in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court on charges of assault, obstructing the police, and malicious destruction of property, jamaica-gleaner.com reports. The verdict, delivered by Chief Parish Judge Broderick, brings to a close a case that originated from a confrontation at the Gordon Town Police Station in St Andrew in 2019.
The incident began when police visited McDonald's home to investigate allegations that his two stepsons were not attending school. Officers subsequently brought McDonald, the children's mother, and the children to the station. McDonald testified that while he was holding his young child in the guard room, officers behaved aggressively toward him. He stated that a constable pulled his common-law wife toward a barrier before punching him in the jaw and eye. He denied kicking any officer or intentionally tearing any uniform.
The prosecution alleged that McDonald and a constable became engaged in a physical altercation in which McDonald kicked the officer and tore his uniform. McDonald's version of events was supported by a medical certificate, which both the prosecution and defence agreed to admit into evidence.
His attorneys, Hugh Wildman and Indira Patmore, challenged both the legality of the police's conduct and the evidentiary basis for the charges. Wildman argued that officers had entered McDonald's premises without a warrant and without disclosing any lawful basis for doing so. Despite McDonald informing the officers that his children were being home-schooled, he was still required to accompany them to the station.
Wildman further contended that the police had no authority to detain McDonald, the children's mother, or the children under Section 24 of the Education Act. He submitted that the section does not create an offence for a parent who simply fails to send a child to school. The provision, he argued, concerns a parent's failure to comply with a notice from an educational board requiring a child to undergo a medical examination — a process for which no such notice had been served on McDonald.
The attorneys also argued that the police had breached McDonald's constitutional rights to privacy and liberty, and that he had been subjected to arbitrary detention.
This was not the first time McDonald had been cleared in connection with the 2019 episode. In 2021, the school attendance charges against him were dismissed after Wildman and Patmore successfully argued that no offence had been disclosed under Section 24 of the Education Act. The trial on the remaining charges — assault, obstruction, and destruction of property — commenced that same year before concluding with Friday's acquittal.
Wildman maintained that the medical evidence supported McDonald's account that he had been assaulted at the station, and that the prosecution had failed to establish its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Source: Google News JM — Crime