A police sergeant based at the Ocho Rios station and his son, who were charged with breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act, were freed last Friday.

Resident Magistrate Carol Edwards upheld no-case submissions at the end of the Crown's case in the St Ann's Bay Resident Magistrate's Court in St Ann.

Sergeant Noel Morgan and his son, Morelando Morgan, were freed following submissions by Howard Hamilton, QC, and attorney-at-law Errol Taylor that there was an irreconcilable breakdown of the identification.

The lawyers pointed out that the complainant had claimed it was Morgan who was held during a sting operation while the policemen confirmed that they held his son.

Tables turned

After the men were freed, the RM directed that the complainant, Maurice Robinson, a garage operator, be charged with larceny of the motor car, which allegedly resulted in the arrests of the Morgans.

The RM also directed that two policemen who were named in the statement which Robinson gave to the police be transferred from St Ann.

The Morgans were charged following a sting operation in St Ann in March last year in which it was alleged that money was paid for a larceny case against Robinson to be dropped.

The allegations were that on March 11, Sgt Morgan met Robinson at Reggae Beach in Prospect, St Mary, and arrangements were made for $150,000 to be paid to drop the larceny case against him. Arrangements were allegedly made for the money to be paid two days later at a gas station at White River, St Ann.

Police report

A report was made to the police and on March 13, 2008, a sting operation was set up and Sgt Morgan's son held when he allegedly went to collect money from Robinson.

Robinson testified that he met with Sgt Morgan at the beach on March 1l and then met him again two days later at White River where he paid him $50,000.

Sgt W. James and Deputy Superintendent of Police Leon Clunis, who set up the sting operation, testified that it was Sgt Morgan's son who was held on March 13 last year at White River and not Sgt Morgan.

Hamilton, who represented Sgt Morgan, suggested to the complainant that he had claimed it was the policeman he saw at White River because he had never met him.

Hamilton also claimed that Robinson knew that Sgt Morgan was selling a motor car and he telephoned him, telling him that he wanted to buy the car. It was also suggested to him that he agreed to buy the motor car from Sgt Morgan for $600,000 and was to make a deposit of $200,000.

Arrangements were made for the deposit to be paid at White River where the sting operation took place. Robinson denied all the claims.

Robinson said, under cross-examination, that he had previously paid two policemen $100,000 because they had warned him that his garage would be raided and he should not divulge that information. It was those two policemen who the RM recommended be transferred from St Ann.