Berkley remanded in Jamaica for extradition hearing

The 56-year-old Jamaican wanted here on five counts of conspiracy to murder three Police officers and two other men, appeared briefly in the Half Way Tree Criminal Court in Jamaica yesterday morning.

Vernon Eugenie Berkley of Wilmington, St. Thomas was captured by members of the Fugitive Apprehension Team and the St. Thomas Police in Morant Bay on Friday.

He is facing extradition to Bermuda to stand trial on the five counts as well as conspiracy to obstruct, prevent and pervert or defeat the course of justice in the case of threats on the lives of three policemen and two other men.

The administration officer at Half Way Tree Criminal Court said yesterday that Berkley?s case was adjourned and since it?s a matter for extradition, he was not asked to plea.

He is due to return to court at a later date and was remanded in custody. A spokesperson from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Jamaica yesterday said none of the prosecutors involved in the matter were available for comment.

Two local men are currently on remand at Westgate, awaiting trial on November 2.

Quartet arrested outside Ozone for fighting

A scuffle broke out at a Front Street nightclub over the weekend and ended with four men being arrested after bystanders tried to intervene when Police broke up the disturbance.

Members of the Police Support Unit were called to Ozone nightclub in the Emporium Building around 2.30 a.m. on Saturday and arrested four men, aged between 17 and 45 years-old for obstruction and also a 35-year-old man for breach of the peace. Inquiries into the incident are underway.

In an apparently unrelated incident, a man was arrested and taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital after he put up a violent struggle when he was arrested after running from the Emporium Building. The suspect, a 27-year-old Pembroke man, also needed treatment at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital for neck and shoulder injuries after the incident in Hamilton early Saturday morning.

Police on Front Street spotted him acting suspiciously and running from the Emporium building to a parking lot across the street. The man got in a car and drove off but was then stopped by the Police outside Number One Shed. It was than that the violent struggle ensued between the two officers and the man.

After hospital treatment the suspect was released to Police custody. Inquiries into the incident are underway.

New Yorker fined $3,500 for having drugs

An American visitor caught with cocaine and cannabis on a cruise ship has been hit with a $3,500 fine.

Drugs officers found 2.32 grams of cannabis and 0.40 grams of cocaine in the cabin of New Yorker Dwayne Alex Bynum.

Prosecutor Wayne Caines said Narcotics officers seized the drugs in the the 42-year-old animal breeder?s cabin on September 13. Magistrates? Court heard how Bynum had no previous convictions on the Island. Bynum admitted two charges of importing drugs and another of having equipment for use in connection with the misuse of controlled drugs.

Senior magistrate Archibald Warner fined the American, from Walden, New York, a total of $3,500.

Cursing in front of cops costs Pembroke man $300

A Pembroke man who shouted an offensive word as Police officers were talking to him paid the price when he was fined $300 at Magistrates Court.

Michael Zephaniah Eversley was brought to court on his twenty-fifth birthday where he pleaded guilty to shouting the word ?f***? as he was being spoken to by officers in Burnaby Street.

The court was told that Eversley, of Tribe Road, Pembroke Parish, was stopped at 9.10 p.m. on September 2 and was warned about his language. As he was being spoken to he said the word ?f***? in a loud voice, causing people nearby to turn their heads.

Eversley said the word he had used was not directed at police.

Laptop, cash stolen from Devonshire home

A laptop computer and hundreds of US dollars have been stolen in a house raid in Devonshire.

The incident happened between 8.15 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. on Wednesday at Oleander Lane.

The victim told police that a black Compaq laptop, a Sony PlayStation2 games machine, $600 and an unknown amount of Canadian cash was missing.

Drug pipe earns $300 fine

A man with a drugs paraphernalia pipe tried to hide the instrument in his trouser pocket after Police officers spotted him on Court Street.

Raymond Robinson, 42, was near the Spinning Wheel on Court Street on November 12 last year when he was observed by officers who noticed he had a cylindrical pipe in his hands.

When Robinson realised he was being watched he quickly put the pipe into one of his trouser pockets and tried to leave the scene, the Magistrates Court in Hamilton was told.

But the Police officers followed him and stopped him before carrying out a search of his person and discovered the pipe in his right front trouser pocket.

The officers told Robinson, of Deepdale Road, Pembroke, that they believed the pipe was for use with controlled drugs. Robinson remained silent and was arrested.

He pleaded guilty in court to having a pipe for use with controlled drugs and was fined $300.

Four impaired driving arrests over weekend

Four people were arrested on suspicion of impaired driving over the weekend and there were five reported incidents of breaking and entering, two in Pembroke, two in St George?s and one in Warwick.

There were also 21 damage-only road traffic collisions and six road accidents that resulted in injury.