Police legal advisor to hand over video evidence in Dion Bascom case

To avoid being remanded to prison for failing to comply with the orders of City Magistrate Leron Daly, Police Legal Advisor Mandel Moore was given an additional 24 hours to produce a piece of video evidence in the case of Police Detective Dion Bascom.

The video in question is the August 17,2022 press conference held by the Commissioner of Police (ag.) Clifton Hicken and Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum at the Police Headquarters at Eve Leary, Georgetown.

During the press conference, Blanhum shared tidbits of the investigations into the claims made by Bascom. Referencing a few specific allegations, Blanhum debunked Bascom’s claims of a cover-up of the murder of Ricardo Fagundes.

Police Legal Advisor Mandel Moore was previously ordered by the Magistrate to produce the video evidence on Wednesday for disclosure.

However, Moore showed up in court without the video file to submit to the court.

The Magistrate informed Moore that he disobeyed her orders and remanded him for contempt of the court. He was escorted downstairs to the police outpost of the Georgetown Magistrates Court.

A few minutes later, the Magistrate ordered that Moore be brought up back to court. Moore gave an oral undertaking to have the evidence presented to the court by Thursday at 11:00 hours.

Dion Bascom is currently out on $300,000 for allegedly harassing two of his senior colleagues online by accusing them of ‘covering up’ the murder of Fagundes.

Earlier this month Bascom, 33, appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on three cybercrime-related charges.

The charges alleged that Bascom during August used a computer system to transmit electronic data with the intent to humiliate, harass or cause substantial emotional distress to Superintendents Mitchell Ceasar and Chabinauth Singh.

The matter was transferred to Magistrate Daly for trial which is slated to commence on November 9.

On August 8, Bascom was among five persons arrested by the Customs Anti Narcotic Unit (CANU) after three pounds of cocaine were found in a Norton Street, Georgetown, residence.

Though arrested, Bascom was not charged and was released by CANU, but he went live on his Facebook page and made several damning allegations of corruption against city businessman Azruddin Mohamed and senior officers of the Police Force as it relates to the murder of Fagundes.

Fagundes was riddled with bullets on March 21, 2021, on Main Street, Georgetown, moments after he exited a nightclub.

Bascom has since deleted the live video over fears about his family’s life.

An investigation carried out by the Regional Security System (RSS) did not find any evidence of corrupt practices or an attempt to cover up the probe into Fagundes’ murder.