DPP’s office challenges cop’s acquittal from murder charge

Richard Polonio

On Thursday police constable, Richard Polonio, breathed a sigh of relief after he was freed of a Murder charge that came about after the fatal shooting of forty-nine year old Carmen Herrera in 2008. Polonio was acquitted of the charge because Justice John Troadio Gonzalez felt that the evidence against him was not strong enough for the jury to make the decision and so he directed them to find him not guilty. But that was not the end of it because today the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions filed an appeal. The grounds for the appeal is that the prosecution believes that Justice Gonzalez erred in law when he upheld the no case submission, which was submitted by Polonio’s Attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley.  In trial, Yohhahnseh Cave, who represented the DPP’s office, submitted that the jury could have deliberated based on the testimony of the main witness, Joseph Garbutt, who was with Polonio on the night of his death. Garbutt had claimed during the trial that he saw a man dressed in black crouched down under the bridge aiming what he believed was a firearm right before the shot that killed Herrera was heard. Herrera’s injuries were also believed to be evidence since it could only have been caused by a shotgun, which is the type of weapon Polonio admittedly fired on the night of the shooting. The paperwork was filed on Thursday, but it is not certain if the case will make it for the next session of the Court of Appeal which is set to begin in March.