Bail granted to man who stabbed cop in police station

Kent McKenzie

The third bail application was is in respect of forty-four year old Kent McKenzie, who is accused of stabbing Police Constable, Delia Hyde on November twenty-first at the police station. McKenzie also appeared before Justice Denis Hanomansingh and was granted bail of five thousand dollars. He was ordered to surrender his travel documents and not to interfere with witnesses or Hyde. But there is a wrinkle with the third condition, which is that McKenzie is to report weekly to the Dangriga Police Station, where Hyde works and was stabbed. It means that Hyde could be vulnerable even though she works at a police station. In McKenzie’s case, the D.P.P.’s office also strongly objected to bail since the stabbing occurred at the Police Station, in the clear view of a battery of officers. While the prosecution told the court McKenzie showed total disrespect for the law, Justice Hanomansingh is quoted as saying “the woman should have gone to another area in the police station knowing the man was being brought for a matter that concerned her. She should have known that her presence would have aggravated the situation.” Attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley submitted two affidavits on McKenzie’s behalf, in which he alleges that Hyde had been harassing him, making threats and false allegations against him as well as using her connections to make other officers target him. Hyde, who is the mother of McKenzie’s six year old daughter, claims that on November twenty-first, he was detained on the strength of a warrant for unpaid child maintenance. According to Hyde, she had bent over to get the prisoners’ log book from a locker while McKenzie was being escorted into the station. But as she got up, McKenzie stabbed her in the back twice. One police officer, who claimed that he had searched McKenzie, says that he didn’t find a knife in his possession. On November twenty-second, McKenzie was charged in the Dangriga Magistrate’s Court for Wounding.  His next court date is on February twenty-second, 2012.