Multimillion-dollar bail package for popular attorney

Over strong objections by prosecutors and the police, a judge has offered popular St Ann-based attorney Debby-Ann Samuels a multimillion-dollar bail package with strict conditions.

Samuels’ bail was set at $4 million and she was ordered to surrender her travel documents to authorities and report daily at the Brown’s Town Police Station.

The attorney was also ordered to report to the sub-officer in charge of the Brown’s Town Police Station if she is leaving St Ann and the court also ordered that a stop order be placed on her at the ports.

She is expected to remain in custody through the weekend while her bail is processed. Her attorney, Donnovan Collins, declined to comment.

The bail conditions were imposed in the St Ann’s Bay Parish Court on Friday where Samuels made her first court appearance since she was arrested after a dramatic two-hour standoff with police in Montego Bay, St James on Wednesday.

The arrest came five days after a public bulletin issued by the police named her as a person of interest in a case being investigated by the Fraud Squad and sought the assistance of citizens to locate her.

The attorney reportedly locked herself inside a car and refused to get out for nearly two hours after two cops on patrol in the busy town centre identified her and informed her that she would be taken into custody.

In opposing bail, prosecutors cited the circumstances under which she was apprehended and suggested that she was intentionally avoiding the police.

They also raised concerns that Samuels would not show up for her trial.

Samuels was charged by the police Fraud Squad on Thursday with one count of fraudulent conversion. It is alleged that she sold a property for a client for $8.2 million, but failed to hand over the money.

Collins previously told The Gleaner that he is “certain” that his client will be exonerated at trial.

“Based on my client’s instructions, she has not fraudulently converted any money for any client. But we await our day in court when the truth will come to light,” he said on Thursday.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com