Adams appeals judge’s decision
SENIOR Superintendent Renato Adams, former head of the now defunct Crime Management Unit, on Wednesday filed an appeal against Supreme Court judge Basil Reid’s dismissal of his application for leave to challenge Police Commissioner Francis Forbes’ decision to take him off front-line duty.
The documents, which were filed in the registry of the local appellate court, said that Justice Reid’s decision of June 16, 2003 was erroneous in law in respect of his finding that Adams’ transfer did not constitute an unfair or disciplinary measure; did not involve aspects of public law; and, as a consequence, did not entitle him to a judicial review.
Additionally, the documents stated that Reid erred in that he failed to consider Adams’ station and rank in discussing his application for leave for a judicial review of the matter.
Adams was in May transferred to the Mobile Reserve Unit as co-ordinator of the National Crime Initiative, a role which requires him to do a comprehensive analysis of, and monitor the national crime scene, after Forbes scrapped the CMU.
The scrapping of the CMU, which was established in 2000 to dismantle gangs and crack down on extortion, drugs and carjacking, came in the wake of the controversial killing of four civilians, two of whom were women, by the CMU in Crawle, a small community in the rural parish of Clarendon.
The incident re-ignited a long-running controversy over the CMU’s credibility and methods of keeping law and order.
Reid, who heard Adams’ application for permission to challenge Forbes in the Judicial Review Court, dismissed it after hearing arguments from defence attorney, Arthur Kitchin, who tried to convince Reid that Adams’ reassignment was essentially a disciplinary measure which the commissioner had no right to take without consulting Adams.
However, Reid rejected Kitchin’s argument in favour of Solicitor General Michael Hylton, who opposed the application on the premise that the commissioner wasn’t disciplining Adams.