For months we haven't reported on Elvin Penner - but the passport allegations have not gone away - even thought he was acquitted in Magistrate's Court. The private prosecutors, Geovannie Brackett and Nedal McLaren, have still kept the case going in the background.
We've not heard of many Magistrate's Court cases being appealed at the Supreme Court, but attorney for the private prosecutors, Kareem Musa, has convinced Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin to hear the case. Since this case turned on the ruling of the sitting Magistrate, Aretha Ford, Chief Justice Benjamin will have to decide if she took the right interpretation of the law. Here's what Musa had to say about the pending appeal:
Kareem Musa - Attorney for Geovannie Brackett
"This Friday in the courtroom of the Chief Justice Hon. Kenneth Benjamin - this appeal surrounds the analysis of section 30 of the summary jurisdiction procedure act and in that particular section, if you would recall in court at the Magistrate's court level, we have applied to the Magistrate for the Commissioner of Police to be summoned by the Magistrate which is a discretion under section 30 that she holds, to attend court and to deliver up all evidence that he may have in his possession. The actual section 30 says that you are to do that when summoned. On Friday, the court will consider whether the magistrate was reasonable or unreasonable in not summoning the Commissioner of Police to the Magistrate Court to give evidence and to provide all those statements that he had gathered."
The case takes place on Friday, and we'll update you then on how it went.
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