THE Judiciary has sought to provide the public with the reasons for a court discharging four men of human-trafficking charges in March.
In a release, the Judiciary released the ruling of the Chief Magistrate in the case involving Jose Raphael Sorzano Perez, with dual citizenship in TT and Venezuela; Keron Pascal; Shaquille Noel and Judah James, all of Diego Martin on March 23.
It said it was doing so to bring “clarity on the matter " to the public.”
Chief Magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle discharged the men after dismissing an application by the prosecution to tender the alleged victim’s statements into evidence because the police were unable to find her. In her ruling, she was highly critical of the police.
The State’s evidence suggested the victim, a Venezuelan minor, entered Trinidad illegally, in 2019, but was forced into prostitution.
On October 2, 2019, the victim was arrested at a house in Diego Martin by officers of the Western Division. One man was arrested there while the others were held at different locations in the district.
In its application, the prosecution listed a number of steps to locate the victim who had run away from a safe house since May 10, 2021, without success. The defence objected to the application because the steps taken by the police were “inadequate, irrelevant and incomprehensible.”
In her ruling, Earle-Caddle said the court was of the view that the prosecution’s steps to locate the witness fell woefully short of what was reasonable. “The investigations were inadequate and unacceptable. Thus the prosecution has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that all reasonable steps were taken to locate this witness.”
Earle-Caddle said while not “all” steps needed to be taken to locate the witness, “reasonable” ones were anticipated in the quest to find her.
As she analysed the evidence, Earle-Caddle said the victim’s address in Venezuela was known to the police as well as her parents and siblings’ names. She also referred to other Venezuelans with whom she interacted as well as her ex-boyfriend in Venezuela. Earle-Caddle said it was “ludicrous” they were not contacted by the police to find the witness.
She said the witness used phones, laptops, tablets and other electronic devices allegedly belonging to the accused and frequented “little shops” in the area.
“Is it too farfetched to expect the complainant to seek the assistance of the cybercrime unit and the internet provider/s to extract sites visited, check the metadata of photographs etc. to obtain contemporaneous connections to these profiles? I don’t believe so.”
The chief magistrate also said the police’s doctor examined her in October 2019, and another in July 2020. Personnel from the Venezuelan embassy also spoke to her on March 10, 2021, and provided identity confirmation documents.
“The court does not expect every henhouse, whorehouse, outhouse, HDC house, fashion house or clothing store, bar or restaurant or brothel to be se
