A tour guide cried in anguish yesterday as a magistrate sentenced her to prison for assaulting police officers and threatening them as they tried to take her into custody.
Edenah Farah, 36, broke down after Magistrate Derence Rolle-Davis ordered her jailed for a year.
Rolle-Davis ordered police to arrest Farah’s sister after she shouted out, “This doesn’t make any sense.”
PC Gilbert said Farah, who conducts Segway tours, was leading a group of tourists on Woodes Rogers Walk on January 7, 2011 when he saw the group headed the wrong way on the road.
Gilbert said he told Farah that he would give her a ticket for going the wrong way on a one way street. Farah allegedly told the officer that he couldn’t book her and started to move away.
According to Gilbert, when he tried to arrest her, she hit his hand. He called for reinforcements and six officers responded.
Farah, in her defense, said the police were the aggressors. She suffered a broken arm, a tear in the right leg and bite marks about the body.
“Police were left with little choice but to physically take her from the scene, calling for reinforcements only as a result of her actions,” said Rolle-Davis.
He said Farah could have prevented the situation by taking the ticket and leaving, rather than showing her disdain for the police.
Farah’s lawyer, Jomo Campbell, has appealed the conviction and sentence.
By Artesia Davis
Guardian Senior Reporter