Korean freed on drug charges
WESTERN BUREAU – It was a tearfully happy Korean, Yoo Jung Ko, who left the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court on Monday last after drug charges against her were dismissed because of the prosecution’s lack of preparedness.
After over seven months before the court and five trial dates, the prosecution still was not prepared to proceed in the matter on Monday.
The court was told that the investigator, Corporal Erica Anglin, who has been on sick leave since about August, could not be contacted. And Canadian, Roxanne Vernon who Ko accused of having given her the suitcase wherein the three pounds and five ounces of ganja for which she is charged was found, was not present either.
Ko’s attorney Linton Gordon who was assisted by attorney Stacey Mitchell told the court that in light of those circumstances, the charges against his client should be dismissed.
Further, he said Ko had made three trips from Korea to make the various trial dates and that in all fairness, she ought not to be required to make another trip simply because the prosecution was not prepared.
It was annoyed RM Valerie Stephens who dismissed the charges against her.
The appalled RM added that the police Commissioner’s office ought to be contacted and informed they had a missing police officer.
“This is ridiculous Ma’am.” The RM told the clerk of court, Sharon Barnes. “These people have come abroad three times.”
At the time of her arrest at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Ko was a student in Canada.
She was however granted bail in the sum of $100,000 to finish her university studies. Since that time Ko, her witness and an interpreter from the United States, have been journeying from Korea to meet the trial date. And in all that time she has maintained she had no knowledge of the drug in the suitcase, which she insists Vernon asked her to take back to Canada in April.
RM Stephens said Monday that the fact that Ko had remained true to her bond and had travelled from as far away as Korea to make the various trial dates could be interpreted as the action of an innocent person.
The RM subsequently ordered the matter dismissed and told Ko she was free to go. It was tearful Ko who left the prisoner’s dock in the company of her smiling Korean interpreter.