St Ann cops face bribery charges after traffic stop
Published:Tuesday | April 1, 2025 | 1:24 AMLivern Barrett/Senior Staff Reporter
Two police constables accused of collecting $10,000 for not prosecuting a motorist who was allegedly driving without a licence have been arrested on corruption-related charges.
Georgian Hunter and Reul Masters, both assigned to the Discovery Bay Police Station in St Ann, have been charged with breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act, their attorney Donnovan Collins has confirmed.
They have been in custody since the March 25 incident in the community of Dumbarton, also in St Ann.
Commanding officer for the St Ann police, Superintendent Dwight Powell, in confirming the arrests, disclosed that the two cops are also under investigation related to other allegations made against them.
He, however, declined to give details.
“We are investigating some other allegations. I don’t know if it is more than one [case], but there are some other allegations,” Powell said, when contacted by The Gleaner yesterday.
Collins said he is aware of the other allegations and related investigation, but declined to comment, saying he will not engage in a trial by the public.
“What I am very concerned about is the length of time that my clients have been in custody,” said the attorney, noting that the cops have been detained for a week.
Hunter and Masters were reportedly on patrol in Dumbarton when they saw “a young man” driving a motor car and signalled him to stop.
The cops requested his driver’s licence and he allegedly told them he did not have one, according to sources with knowledge of the March 25 traffic stop.
“There was a male passenger in the car who indicated that he had a driver’s licence, but that it was at his home. They (cops) accompanied them to the home so that he could prove that he has a driver’s licence,” said one source.
It is alleged that the constables collected two $5,000 notes from a resident to “buy a drink”, arising from their decision not to prosecute the young man who was driving the vehicle.
According to the source, the $5,000 notes were allegedly found in their possession when they were intercepted by a senior cop, who had been tipped off about the incident via WhatsApp messages with pictures of the banknotes.