A warrant was issued for the arrest of flamboyant handbag designer Harl Taylor after he failed to appear in court on a charge of causing harm.
Taylor was due to appear in Magistrate’s court yesterday morning in relation to the charge that he intentionally and unlawfully caused harm to American Kathleen Dwyer and that he caused harm to her sunglasses and computer.
The charge is the result of an alleged altercation between Taylor and Ms. Dwyer at his office in Mountbatten House, West Hill on Wednesday, March 2004.
Using the tried and true corrupt legal technique of not appearing in court when ordered to do so, Taylor’s lawyer Deborah Rose told the court that according to her information, her client had been advised that it was not necessary for him to appear yesterday. She was, however, unable to name the source of this advice.
It is common in the Bahamas for scurilous lawyers to advise their clients not to show up for court since punishment is rarely meted out for such activity and it is an effective way to delay a case. It is not clear who advised Mr. Taylor not to appear.
This technique bodes well for the many corrupt Bahamian lawyers and their criminal clients, especially when foreigners are involved. The intended delay makes the foreigner travel all the way to the Bahamas for a court appearance, only to be told the Bahamian defendant did not show up. This delays the case and makes it so the foreigner has to travel AGAIN, at their own expense, all the way back to the Bahamas for the rescheduled court appearance.
One foreigner, whose wife and daughter were raped while vacationing in Nassau, recently gave up on pressing charges, after traveling to Nassau several times, only to find the accused did not show up in court.
Another American who was assaulted in Nassau last year also gave up on pursuing the matter in the dysfunctional courts of the Bahamas after numerous dismissals and postponements, including the prosecutor not showing up on two occasions.
In Tuesday’s case involving Ms. Dwyer, who traveled from Iowa exclusively for the court appearance, Magistrate Misiewicz went through the motions of issuing a warrant of arrest for Mr. Harcourt. Ms. Dwyer told the court that yesterday was only the latest of “several cancellations”” so far in the case
