By FARRAH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
A MAGISTRATE yesterday discharged a young man who was summoned to court for leaving his home without a face mask.
Shavar Hepburn, 20, was charged with violating the requirement to wear a face mask, after officers found him walking on Nassau Street barefaced on September 27.
He pleaded guilty during a hearing before Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes, but was discharged after he told the magistrate he didn’t have a face mask because he had been released from jail recently.
The court was told that officers were on mobile patrol on Nassau and Dean Streets around 5.20pm on the day in question. It was at that time they noticed Hepburn walking south on Nassau Street without a face mask. They beckoned him to stop and informed him that he was in breach of the emergency protocols. The prosecution said when the officers asked Hepburn why he wasn’t wearing a mask while he was walking outdoors, he told them he didn’t have one. He was subsequently ticketed and given a date to appear in court.
During the hearing, Magistrate Forbes asked the accused why he did not have a mask by now. In response, Hepburn told him he had just been released from prison in September and was not given one when he was let go.
As a result, Magistrate Forbes said he would discharge the accused with a warning. Still, he told him to “make certain” he wore a face mask every time he left his home from that point forward.
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