After a failed attempt at mediation between two women, one of whom allegedly used a pair of scissors to stab the other during a fight in a bar, the judge rescheduled the matter for mention in the St James Parish Court.
The accused, Aontonetta Wedderburn, is charged with unlawful wounding.
According to court documents, on April 18, the complainant was working as a bartender at her establishment on Union Street in Montego Bay when Wedderburn, a patron in the bar, got into a fight with another patron. The complainant intervened in the brawl, and Wedderburn stabbed her in her left arm with a pair of scissors.
The police referred the matter for mediation. On Wednesday, May 17, 2023, the parties told the St James Parish Court presiding judge, Sasha-Marie Ashley, that mediation was unsuccessful.
Mediation is a new strategy employed by the courts to settle disputes and reduce pressure on the justice system.
After hearing the allegations on Wednesday, the judge remarked that it “sounds like it was one too many drinks of rum.”
The judge then asked the defendant if she would consider mediation, and she said it “depends on the complainant.”
The judge stood the case down briefly to allow the parties to speak to a mediator. However, the parties could not arrive at a mutual agreement. The complainant wanted the accused to pay her medical bills, and the accused wanted to get reimbursed for injuries she sustained during the incident.
The judge adjourned the case until May 31, 2023.
PM breaks silence on salary hikes: said Jamaicans ‘bad mind’ the political class.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has broken his silence over the massive salary increase granted to members of the political directorate.
And in defending the most significant wage hike ever for the political class, Prime Minister Holness implied that the Jamaican people ‘bad mind’ the political class. And even though the PM never used those exact words, the phrase he used in one of his sentences cannot be interpreted any other way.
“What has plagued us for many years as a country…is that we have treated the political class with schizophrenia and disdain.”
Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness
Also, the PM has completely changed the meaning of the word ‘SERVICE.’ Government should not be a place where people go to enrich themselves. It should be where you go when you genuinely want to serve your country and help move it forward.
Joining the political class is voluntary. Therefore, pay should not be the impetus for politicians to do their jobs effectively. How can these grifters pay themselves handsomely when the backbone of society has to scratch and claw to get a 4% raise?
The political class is tone-deaf. Because when you look at the negative picture of the crime situation in Jamaica, the uneasiness over salary by public sector workers, the cry for running water and better roads in places like Fairy Hill in Portland, the unrealized promises by then Opposition Leader Andrew Holness, dilapidated infrastructure, the hiccups in the Health and Education Ministries, the absence of reliable working vehicles at some police stations, and a plethora of other unsolved pressing issues, it’s unfathomable that any reasonable caring human being overseeing an organization would have the enthusiasm to ask their boss for a raise under those conditions. If the Government were Grace or Seprod, the Board of Directors would clean the slate.