A 24-year-old fish vendor was fined a total of $1 200 for curfew and drug offences.
Jerome Antonio Stuart, of 8th Avenue New Orleans, St Michael pleaded guilty to breaching Paragraph (4) subparagraph (1) of the Emergency Management (COVID-19) (CURFEW) (NO.4) Directive by leaving his residence when he was not authorized to do so on February 24 and possession of a small quantity of marijuana.
He was fined a forthwith $1000 fine on the breach of curfew charge and $200 on the drug charge. The amounts were paid.
Stuart, however denied having a quantity of cocaine in his possession on the same day. He appeared before Magistrate Elwood Watts in the District ‘C’ Magistrates’ Court this morning and secured $1000 bail with one surety with a July 21 date to reappear before the magistrate in connection with the cocaine charge.
Station Sergeant St Clair St Philip said police were on patrol in Stuart’s community when they observed him walking from one of the gaps. He was stopped and asked his reason for being outdoors. He did not reply. A search was conducted of his person and the illegal substance was found in small Zip loc bags.”Dem is mine . . . I had them to sell. Things hard,” he allegedly told lawmen at the time.
“The police hold me and they ain’t allow me to explain myself. I leave home to go by my mother to borrow the car to go for my daughter. My daughter lives in Christ Church with her mother,” Stuart explained to the magistrate.
The prosecutor also submitted that Stuart had been granted bail recently in another COVID-19 case and was set to reappear on May 20.
