Appeal Court upholds Magistrate’s ruling in Luke Browne voter fraud case

The Court of Appeal has upheld Chief Magistrate Sonya Young’s decision on the Luke Browne matter and has dismissed the appeal filed by Lawyers Kay Bacchus-Browne and Nicole Sylvester.{{more}}

On Friday, December 10, 2010, Young cleared Luke Browne, the Unity Labour Party’s East Kingstown candidate in the December 13 General Elections of voter registration fraud charges.

Bacchus-Browne and Nicole Sylvester represented Patricia Chance both at the Magistrate’s Court level and Appeal Court. Chance had brought four charges against Browne that he induced persons to register to vote.

When her Lawyers failed at the Magistrate’s Court they proceeded with an appeal which was heard by Court of Appeal Justices Chief Justice Hugh Rawlins (President), Janice George-Creque and Davidson Baptiste on Thursday, January 27, 2011.

Browne was represented by Lawyers Graheme Bollers and Richard Williams.

Last December, when Young dismissed the case, she said in her decision that the charge had no merit and that the offence brought against Browne was “not known to law”.

Young agreed with the defence argument that the offence was not committed until after an illegally registered person votes.

“The charges are premature and cannot stand in trial,” Young said in her ruling.

However, Kay Bacchus-Browne had stated at the time that she does not agree with the ruling.

“It’s just a matter of how you interpret the statute. It has nothing to do with the evidence, and the question is whether or not these people were registered illegally,” she maintained.