An allegedly corrupt police sergeant, who forgot to come to court to testify in a drug case, has been fined a paltry $75 despite having perverted justice.
Deputy Chief Magistrate Carolita Bethell had issued an arrest warrant for Sergeant Rino Armaly on January 21, 2010, after Armaly did not appear in court to testify in a drug case.
The suspect in the case was allegedly set free due to the officer’s “no-show.”
Yesterday, almost a year after the warrant was issued, Armaly showed up in court to settle the matter.
Armaly claimed that the court case had slipped his mind because he was allegedly working on “an active murder investigation.”
Bethell said he should have called the court out of courtesy.
According to Armaly, he learned only last week that a warrant for his arrest was outstanding.
Bethell said she found this “hard to believe” and ordered an investigation. She said she would forward transcripts of the hearing to Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade and Superintendent Leon Bethell, the head of the Central Detective Unit.
It is expected that the “investigation” will go nowhere.
In what can only be considered another mockery of justice, Magistrate Bethell ended up fining the police sergeant $75 for not showing up for the original drug case.
