A chance encounter in an orthopaedic ward forged an unlikely friendship between attorney-at-law Able-Don Foote and St Andrew businessman Gary Roberts. Years after, that friendship bore fruit when Roberts was pulled into the belly of Jamaica’s justice system, and Foote offered his services and was able to secure an acquittal in favour of his embattled friend. 

Roberts had been accused of inappropriately touching a minor on her vagina and buttocks in 2016, but was acquitted of indecent assault following a no case submission by Foote.  

Foote said that he had first met Roberts years ago at the University Hospital of the West Indies when they were both bedridden and suffering from fractures caused by serious accidents. They kept in touch and when Roberts got into legal hot water, Foote was more than willing to bail him out.

“I met in a dirt bike accident while riding in the hills while he was in a car accident. We were on the same ward at UWI years ago.  We related to each other because we were in a similar plight, we both broke our feet and we were both immobile. Fast forward years later we’re both up and running and I had the opportunity to successfully represent him, giving him a new lease on life. Sometimes we all need a second chance, just as how I did years ago whilst on that hospital bed. This is God’s engineering and destiny,” Foote stated.

Foote was able to secure a no-case submission for Roberts. 

“I suggested that the allegations could not have transpired the way the complainant had alleged because my client had an external frame on his foot, and was immobile at the time and he could not have stood on one leg and reached down her pants to molest her, so the allegations could not have happened as she suggested,” he explained.

During cross examination, Foote also suggested that the complainant proffered a lie to ensnare Roberts because he had caught her in a compromising position with a minor at the time. Moreover, he argued that the key witness said she was in the room alone playing ‘mama and papa’ at the time of the assault. 

The acquittal was made all the sweeter because it occurred on a day when Foote  secured four other acquittals for four different clients at the Half Way Tree Criminal Court. The charges ranged from larceny, fraud, conspiracy and indecent assault.