By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
A GRANDMOTHER and a mother must pay $30,000 after the man for whom they stood surety allegedly threw his ankle monitoring bracelet into a well and disappeared months before his murder trial.
Supreme Court Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson ruled on Monday that Allerdice Moxey, 80, and Marrisa Rolle, 40, must pay the funds after they failed to locate Rashad Paul, 33, who went missing early last month.
Ms Moxey, Paul’s grandmother, and Ms Rolle, his child’s mother, signed a $30,000 bail form for him in May 2020 after he was accused of killing Kirby Pierre in 2019.
Paul was required to report to police regularly, keep his curfew and wear an ankle monitoring bracelet.
However, police allege that he breached his bail conditions by removing his ankle monitoring bracelet in January. They also suspect he committed murder last year while on bail.
Despite issuing a warrant for his arrest, police have been unable to locate Paul, prompting the court to summon his suretors.
Both women testified that they did not ensure Paul complied with his bail conditions.
His grandmother, a straw vendor, said she rarely saw him because of work and didn’t have a contact for him, despite providing her property papers to secure bail for him.
Ms Moxey said she usually spoke with Paul over the telephone but never checked to see if he was attending court or reporting to police.
“The court finds sureties’ conduct or the lack thereof to be reprehensible,” Justice Grant-Thompson said. “The legal obligation of being a surety was not respected by either Ms Rolle or Ms Moxey. This non-adherence/negligence to fully grasp the weight of the important position they signed onto does not make them any less culpable for the defendant’s failure to attend.”
“The sureties had a causal disregard for their obligations. It is clear to this court that neither surety made any constant checks to confirm the whereabouts of the defendant or sought to confirm that he was adhering to the set bail conditions. It was not until the defendant went missing or to use the modern terminology, went off the grid, did the sureties attempt to contact him.”
Justice Grant-Thompson said she would have considered a more favourable outcome if the women “had done everything they were supposed to.” But she said they “rested on their laurels” and must pay for that. She ordered them to pay $15,000 each in two instalments.
The judge said while the court was “loathe” to make the women pay, it had to send a strong message to society.
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