Alozade withdraws appeal
ALOZADE, the dancehall deejay who was jailed and fined for assault occasioning bodily harm against two policemen; malicious destruction of property and indecent language last year, formally withdrew his appeal in the local appellate court yesterday.
The withdrawal, which was communicated to Appeal Court judges, Ian Forte, Donald Bingham and Seymour Panton by Alozade’s lawyer, Oswald James, means that the deejay will finish the nine-month sentence he incurred in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court on October 2 last year.
On that occasion, Alozade, whose real name is Michael Sterling, who, with a couple of his peers was scheduled to answer charges of breaching the Town and Country Planning Act in the court for unleashing a slew of expletives during his performance at the annual Reggae Sumfest Concert in Montego Bay last August, went berserk.
His outburst, which his lawyer attributed to the side effects of medication, saw him attacking two policemen who tried to escort him from the courtroom after Resident Magistrate Paulette Williams cited him for contempt.
During the ensuing fracas, one of the policemen’s cellular phone was destroyed. That policeman has since filed a civil suit against the 24-year-old deejay for $250,000 in damages.
Several deejays have been at odds with the law since last year when the police, in response to the society’s call for a reinforcement of values and attitudes that reflect decency, began to enforce sections of the Town and Country Planning Act.