By LAMECH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
ljohnson@tribunemedia.net
A MAN told a Supreme Court jury that he’d told a woman “going through some stuff” that she should go to the police.
The witness, whose name is being withheld for his protection, testified yesterday by video link from Freeport concerning his involvement with the second of two women who allege they were victims of human trafficking.
Chevanese “Sasha” Hall, 24, the woman accused of trafficking by bringing the complainants to the Bahamas, listened from the prisoner’s dock. Hall is charged with four counts of trafficking of a person, and two counts of unlawful withholding of papers, alleged to have been committed between January 10 and 28, 2013. Hall denies the charges.
The women alleged that “Sasha” withheld their passports and forced them into prostitution, despite originally being told they would come to the Bahamas to work as a bar maid and a masseuse.
At yesterday’s proceedings before Senior Justice Jon Isaacs, the man told the jury in Nassau that he had met the second complainant one night at a bar located in an area known as “The Ghetto.”
He could not recall the date, but said it was a Thursday.
“I notice a young lady looking at me,” he said. After speaking to the person he came to do business with, he approached her and “asked her if she mind leaving with me.”
“She left with me and we went to my residence,” the witness told prosecutor Eucal Bonaby.
“What if anything happened there?” Mr Bonaby asked.
“We had sex and then talked a little bit. She stayed overnight and when it was time for her to go back, she went back to the bar,” he said.
The prosecutor asked the man if he gave her any money on the occasion that they had relations.
“She wasn’t particular about money, but I give it to her cause she needed some stuff. I gave her $150,” the jury was told.
Mr Bonaby asked the man if she informed him of why she needed the money. The man said he “didn’t know exactly what she was dealing with, but I advised her to go by the police station and told her to talk to them.”
The man claimed he dropped her off to a police station the last time she came by.
In cross-examination, lawyer Brian Dorsett suggested to the witness that the woman had been by him for about 10 days.
“No she wasn’t with me for about 10 days,” the witness answered.
“I’m going to suggest to you, you met her sometime around the 19th (January),” the lawyer said.
The man said he couldn’t recall specific dates.
“Isn’t it true that when you offered to take her home, she said it would cost you?” the lawyer asked.
“Not right away,” the man answered, adding that he was not fully coherent that evening due to drinking alcohol before arriving at the bar.
The man’s statement to police was put to him concerning this and he admitted that there was a discussions of monies being exchanged for sex.
“Was it your idea or hers to go to the police station?” the lawyer asked. The man said it was his idea.
Commenting has been disabled for this item.