Fran­cis Joseph

?Ja­maica reg­gae artist, Jah Cure, spent three hours in po­lice cus­tody on Sat­ur­day night, af­ter an ar­rest war­rant was is­sued by High Court judge, Jus­tice Se­bastien Ven­tour, for ow­ing a To­ba­go show pro­mot­er US$19,993. It was on­ly af­ter the equiv­a­lent in TT dol­lars ($126,000) was pre­sent­ed, that Jah Cure was re­leased from the Cen­tral Po­lice Sta­tion on St Vin­cent Street, Port-of-Spain. He was then able to per­form in a con­cert at Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre, lat­er in the night. Jah Cure, al­so known as Sic­ca­ture Al­cock, was ar­rest­ed on the in­struc­tions of a High Court mar­shal, around 7.30 pm at the Hy­att Re­gency Ho­tel, Port-of-Spain. The dra­ma un­fold­ed when the claimant, Han­del An­tho­ny, a show pro­mot­er from To­ba­go, went be­fore Jus­tice Ven­tour in the Hall of Jus­tice for a spe­cial sit­ting of the High Court.

An­tho­ny was rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Michael Rooplal. Ac­cord­ing to the af­fi­davit, An­tho­ny said he en­tered in­to an agree­ment with Jah Cure to per­form at two con­certs in T&T on April 11 and 12, this year. An­tho­ny said he agreed to pay Jah Cure US$85,000 for these two per­for­mances. An­tho­ny said he trav­elled to Ja­maica, in Jan­u­ary, to fi­nalise arrange­ments for Jah Cure to per­form. In pur­suance of the agree­ment, An­tho­ny said he paid the artist US$40,000 as a de­posit. The pro­mot­er said that on March 9, Jah Cure re­quest­ed the sum of US$17,000, a sum which he promised to re­pay on his vis­it to Trinidad. He al­so re­quest­ed an­oth­er US$2,993 on an­oth­er oc­ca­sion. Be­fore he was due to ar­rive in T&T, Jah Cure re­quest­ed US$45,000, the bal­ance due to him for the two con­certs.

An­tho­ny said the Ja­maican artiste agreed oral­ly to give him ex­clu­sive rights to pro­mote and pro­duce his next per­for­mance in T&T, which was sched­uled in Oc­to­ber. He con­tact­ed Jah Cure in Au­gust, and re­quest­ed that he per­form in Oc­to­ber at the Sting Night­club in San Fer­nan­do. He said Jah Cure de­clined, claim­ing that he did not per­form in the same coun­try more than once in any cal­en­dar year. The To­ba­go pro­mot­er said he found out that Jah Cure was billed as the star per­former at Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre, on Sat­ur­day night. He said this was in clear breach of the artiste's agree­ment to give ex­clu­sive rights for his next per­for­mance in T&T.

An­tho­ny said Jah Cure was ex­pect­ed to leave Trinidad yes­ter­day with his US$19,993. He said he faced the re­al risk of not be­ing able to re­cov­er his mon­ey if Jah Cure had re­turned to his home in Man­ches­ter, Ja­maica. Af­ter hear­ing the ex parte ap­pli­ca­tion, Jus­tice Ven­tour grant­ed the ap­pli­ca­tion for a war­rant for Jah Cure's ar­rest. The court hear­ing end­ed at 6.30 pm on Sat­ur­day, and with­in the hour, Jah Cure was ar­rest­ed at the Hy­att. Some­one close to the Ja­maican artist went to the po­lice sta­tion, and in the pres­ence of var­i­ous peo­ple, the mon­ey, TT$126,000 in cash, was count­ed and hand­ed over to An­tho­ny. Af­ter the debt was sat­is­fied, Jah Cure was able to leave the sta­tion at 10.30 pm.