“You will never decide who you want to do your case. This is not the KFC drive-thru!”
Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes made this clear to Patricia Benedict when she appeared in the No. 1 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, making several allegations regarding how her matters were being handled, and asking the magistrate and prosecutor to recuse themselves.
The Flamboyant Avenue, Sunset Crest, St James resident has several cases before the court in which she is either the complainant or the accused.
Sergeant Randolph Boyce told the court that while he was meeting with the complainant in one of the matters that was scheduled for trial on Tuesday, Benedict made statements in the courtroom “slandering” the country’s justice system.
“I would like the court to explain to her the process that the prosecution is allowed to go through in dealing with their witnesses and that nothing underhanded was going on because people get on social media and the police force and court get slandered,” the prosecutor said.
Chief Magistrate Weekes told Benedict that any person who is a complainant in a matter will be prepped by the prosecution for trial, noting that this happens in all common law jurisdictions.
“It is none of your business and you cannot get involved in that,” he told her.
At that point, Benedict asked that he and the prosecutor recuse themselves from her matters.
Telling her that her request did not have to be granted, the chief magistrate advised Benedict to send her concerns in writing to the Chief Justice and the Registrar.
“I will do that,” she said.
Urging her to seek legal advice from an attorney as it was clear “you do not understand the law”, Weekes told her to return to court on December 17.
Benedict is charged with damaging a camera belonging to Tina Parravicino on November 16, 19 and 22, 2022, and unlawfully assaulting Parravicino on July 20, 2022 and November 17, 2022.
She is also accused of assaulting Keidra Londro, occasioning her actual bodily harm on November 20, 2022; entering the premises of Sharon Alderson on January 19, 2023, without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, having with her a weapon, a hockey stick; and assaulting Alderson occasioning her actual bodily harm on that same day.
Meanwhile, Michael Reid, of Murvic Court, Prior Park Heights, St James, is charged with entering Benedict’s home on April 4, 2021, and inflicting actual bodily harm on her, and Anderson Levere Collins, of Seaview, St James, is charged with threatening Benedict on July 31, 2023, with the words, “You have me on social media. I will kill you. I will chop your neck if you put me on social media again. I am not afraid to go to jail.”
Benedict has also filed two matters for private prosecution. One is against Winston Drayton of Prior Park Heights, St James, accusing him of threatening to inflict serious bodily harm on her on November 25, 2021, and against police officer Jason Leacock, who was attached to the Holetown Police Station, whom she accused of committing common assault against her on March 2, 2022.
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