Sat. bail hearing set for cop charged w/ murder

Amid the excitement of the holiday weekend, the wheels of justice continue to turn. In a special Saturday sitting, tomorrow Justice Troadio Gonzalez will listen to a plea for bail for accused murderer police constable Jesus Maroquin. This morning the officer’s attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley began arguments on Maroquin’s behalf but the matter was adjourned so that the relevant case law could be researched. The accused was arrested on Monday and charged with the September 2005 murder of Egbert Gordon Junior at a house in Los Lagos. The police have maintained that Gordon reached for a firearm and Maroquin responded by firing one shot that caught the young man in the head, killing him instantly. Gordon’s family says while the victim had mental problems, they do not the twenty-five calibre gun police claim was recovered from the scene was his. After the case file was handed over to the Director of Public Prosecutions, he issued a November tenth instruction to charge the officer with murder. That didn’t happen until Monday, which also happened to be the same day the Gordon family announced that it would apply to the courts for a judicial review of the Police Commissioner’s failure to follow the D.P.P.’s instructions. Maroquin’s bail hearing is scheduled to start at nine.