In­dar­jit Seu­raj

A crim­i­nal tri­al at the Hall of Jus­tice, Port-of-Spain, came to an abrupt end yes­ter­day af­ter the tri­al judge col­lapsed in court. A 12-mem­ber ju­ry had on­ly just re­turned for the re­sump­tion of the tri­al in the Port-of-Spain First Crim­i­nal Court when Jus­tice An­tho­ny Car­mona col­lapsed. One wit­ness, who wished to re­main anony­mous, de­scribed the judge's sud­den ill­ness as sim­i­lar to an epilep­tic fit.

Up to late yes­ter­day, Car­mona was said to be rest­ing com­fort­ably at a med­ical in­sti­tu­tion. The na­ture of his ill­ness was not re­vealed.

In a brief phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Jones P Madeira, court pro­to­col and in­for­ma­tion man­ag­er, said it was a scare but the judge was re­cov­er­ing well. "I just spoke to him. He's in fine spir­its," Madeira added. "He's do­ing fine." Madeira said as a pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sure doc­tors had de­cid­ed to keep the judge overnight for ob­ser­va­tion.

Car­mona had re­called the ju­ry in the tri­al against Faizo­ol Ramzan when he col­lapsed short­ly be­fore 10 am yes­ter­day. The ju­ry was ush­ered away and the court was cleared as staff at­tend­ed to the fall­en judge.

In the court at the time were state at­tor­neys Kathy Ann Wa­ter­man-Latchoo and Lee Mer­ry, as well as de­fence lawyer Ul­ric Sker­ritt, who were shocked at what they had wit­nessed. Court mar­shals and po­lice of­fi­cers ran to as­sist Car­mona and wheeled him to the base­ment where an am­bu­lance took him to hos­pi­tal. Jus­tice Car­la Brown-An­toine lat­er ad­journed the tri­al.