An­na-Lisa Paul

A for­mer me­dia work­er who stood bail for jailed re­porter Ak­ile Si­mon has told the court through at­tor­ney Vince Charles that she had been re­ceiv­ing death threats and want­ed to with­draw from the arrange­ment. When Mar­cia Brave­boy tes­ti­fied be­fore Mag­is­trate An­na Ryan in the Ari­ma First Court on Thurs­day, she said Si­mon was no longer liv­ing with her and as a re­sult, she could not en­sure his con­tin­ued ap­pear­ance in court.

Brave­boy had stood bail for Si­mon on May 29 in the amount of $250,000, which was ap­proved by a Clerk of the Peace. Dur­ing Si­mon's fourth ap­pear­ance yes­ter­day, Mag­is­trate An­na Ryan grant­ed the ap­pli­ca­tion and re­voked Si­mon's bail be­cause he no longer had a sure­ty. Ryan lat­er grant­ed Si­mon fresh bail in the amount of $250,000 with a sure­ty, to be ap­proved by a Clerk of the Peace. Si­mon was al­so or­dered to re­port to the Ari­ma Po­lice Sta­tion every Mon­day, Wednes­day and Sat­ur­day be­tween 7 am and 7 pm.

How­ev­er, the pros­e­cu­tor ob­ject­ed to new bail be­ing grant­ed on the ba­sis that Si­mon was no longer liv­ing at the ad­dress stat­ed on the bond and would now have to pro­vide a new ad­dress to the court be­fore he was grant­ed bail a sec­ond time. The mat­ter was ad­journed to to­day, when the new bail ap­pli­ca­tion will be con­sid­ered.

Charles put for­ward three rea­sons why Brave­boy wished to with­draw, in­clud­ing a change of ad­dress; the fact that she did not pos­sess any prop­er­ty or mon­ey as stat­ed on the bail bond; and the the death threats made to her since she had tak­en Si­mon's bail on May 29.

Si­mon, 28, a for­mer Ex­press re­porter, is joint­ly charged with for­mer TV6 cam­era­man Bren­don Alexan­der, 27; taxi dri­ver Randy Bor­ris, 24, and se­cu­ri­ty guard Mar­ley Charles, 27, with of­fences aris­ing out of a rob­bery at K&A Liquor Mart, Range Road, Five Rivers, Arou­ca, on May 20.

When the mat­ter was re­called on Thurs­day, Si­mon was un­rep­re­sent­ed as at­tor­neys Dana See­ta­hal SC and John Heath, who had pre­vi­ous­ly ap­peared on his be­half, were both ab­sent. Dur­ing his third court ap­pear­ance on Ju­ly 12, Si­mon learnt that See­ta­hal and Heath would be with­draw­ing their rep­re­sen­ta­tion, which was ex­pect­ed to be done on Thurs­day. Hold­ing for Kei­th Scot­land, who rep­re­sent­ed Charles, was at­tor­ney Asha Watkins.

Si­mon had to be cau­tioned twice about speak­ing out of turn as the mag­is­trate lis­tened to an ap­pli­ca­tion by at­tor­ney Criston Wil­iams, who rep­re­sents the liquor mart own­er, An­tho­ny Levia. He re­quest­ed a list of the se­r­i­al num­bers on the mon­ey seized by the po­lice, which were sums of $185,807 and US$28,067. Williams said al­though a list had been sub­mit­ted to the court de­tail­ing the de­nom­i­na­tions of both sets of mon­ey, he want­ed to make sure noth­ing goes amiss.

Ryan lat­er or­dered that a list be com­piled and pro­duced on the next ad­journed date of Sep­tem­ber 6. Si­mon is al­so be­fore the Tu­na­puna court charged with pos­ses­sion of a .38 Beretta pis­tol and 13 rounds of .38 am­mu­ni­tion. In that mat­ter, Si­mon's co-ac­cused gar­den­er Rod­ney Cave, 28, was charged with pos­ses­sion of five 12-gauge car­tridges.

While Cave re­mains out on $50,000 bail, Si­mon was de­nied bail be­cause he had sim­i­lar mat­ters pend­ing be­fore the Ari­ma court. Si­mon and Cave were ar­rest­ed on Ju­ly 8, af­ter po­lice searched an apart­ment at the cor­ner of Hen­ry and Meade Streets, Tu­na­puna. Si­mon will reap­pear in the Tu­na­puna court on Au­gust 28.