Bull’s penis case closed

(CNS): Bodden Town businessman and former MLA, Osbourne Bodden, is crossing his fingers for an early Christmas present this year with an acquittal on charges against him for assaulting a man at his gas station last year with a cow-cod. The case against Bodden was closed on Thursday afternoon and Magistrate Nova Hall said she would deliver her ruling on 20 December. Bodden has denied hitting Kirk Watler with a five foot long bull’s penis but has conceded striking the complainant with a stick in self-defence. The altercation between the two men took place in October at Bodden’s business, Lorna’s Texaco, after Watler was refused an exchange on a bottle of rum at the shop.

The court heard how Bodden had given Watler a flask of rum and a packet of cigarettes earlier that day after he had assisted a member of the gas station staff to unload a truck. Watler had shared the rum with a group of friends who were also hanging around the public beach by the local gas station that afternoon, enjoying a drink or two.

Sometime later on the same day, after Bodden had left, Watler returned to the liquor store at Lorna’s with a flask of rum, which when giving his own evidence he had said was a different bottle from that given to him by Bodden. He indicated that this was certainly not the dregs of the original bottle watered down, as suggested by the defence.

Watler had wanted to exchange the ‘rum’ but it was not clear to the court whether he had wanted cash, as he had told the police in his first statement, or bottles of beer, as he told the court. Either way, the cashier at the store had told Watler she would need to contact Bodden to clear the exchange with him. As a result Watler became agitated, angry and upset and caused a scene in the store, insisting that she made the exchange without calling her boss but when the police were called Watler left the premises.

Later that evening, at around 6pm, Bodden arrived back at Lorna’s when Watler was still on the beach drinking. Witnesses said that Watler had called to and taunted Bodden about calling the police on him.

A few minutes later a member of the staff who was working the pumps at the gas station told the court that he saw the two men engaged in a tussle across the street on the ground and he ran over to pull them apart. He said he did not see Bodden strike Watler but he saw that Bodden did have a stick and that Watler had two green beer bottles in his hands.

The complainant had claimed that during the altercation Bodden had struck him several times with a cow-cod, described as being some 4 inches in diameter and around 4 to 5 feet long. The witness was asked if he had seen this implement.

“No, Sir,” he told the prosecuting counsel Kenneth Ferguson. “I’m Jamaican. We don’t waste those things we eat ‘em,” the witness added.

During their summary for the magistrate the lawyers agreed that the credibility of the complainant, who had clearly been drinking on the day, was in question and the magistrate would have to consider if he was bolstering his case by manufacturing things. Ferguson noted, however, that the injuries sustained by Watler were consistent with a weapon which was pliable rather than a stick.

The court heard that there were a significant number of inconsistencies in the complainant’s evidence, which the defence referred to as not just immaterial inconsistencies but ones that went to the very heart of the matter.

Lloyd Sampson, who was representing Bodden, asked the magistrate to consider the incredulous nature of the complainant’s evidence, whom he said had “lost the plot” in the shop on the day in question, which had been shown to the court as it was captured on the CCTV.

Sampson pointed to his previous convictions, which he had tried to hide, and the numerous contradictions in his evidence, as well as his demeanour in the witness stand when he again “lost the plot” in court, against his client’s position that he had struck Watler with a stick in self-defence.

Sampson said the complainant, who was also armed with two bottles, had approached Bodden first and it was him that had struck the first blow, leaving his client with no option but to find something to defend himself with.

Sampson pointed to the absurdity that his client, who is a well-known member of the community, would “lick someone, in broad daylight for all and sundry to see, in the middle of the street with a five foot long bull’s penis.”

Given the many questions and myriad issues relating to the reliability of Watler’s evidence, Sampson said the magistrate could not be sure enough to rely on his claim that Bodden was the aggressor in this case. The magistrate, he said, would have little difficulty making the right decision.

Magistrate Hall confirmed she would deliver her written ruling on the matter on 20 December.