The family of a detainee who received fatal injuries while in police custody may soon get closure.
Officers Donovan Gardiner and Tavares Bowleg will appear before Justice Vera Watkins for the start of their trial for allegedly causing the death of Desmond Key.
Gardiner is charged with manslaughter and Bowleg faces an abetment charge.
Key remained in a coma for seven months as a result of injuries allegedly sustained during a beating at the Grove Police Station in June 2007. Key, who was held overnight at the station on a traffic violation, died in hospital in January 2008.
The trial has already been delayed four times. Watkins put off the case last year after defense lawyers Wayne Munroe and Ian Cargill requested Key’s medical records.
Frustrated over the delays, Key’s grandmother Verona Bastian took her pleas to the press.
In September 2011, she said, “I’m not healing, we’re not healing. We want this to be done with. We’re asking all authorities to do whatever they can to get this case to trial now.”
Source: The Nassau Guardian
