Derek Achong

Pub­lic Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) Pres­i­dent Wat­son Duke has sig­nalled his in­ten­tion to ap­peal his con­vic­tion and sen­tence for mak­ing a false fire re­port in 2017.

Duke, who was found guilty of the of­fence by Mag­is­trate Avion Gill in March, was fined $1,200 dur­ing a vir­tu­al hear­ing, yes­ter­day af­ter­noon.

Even af­ter his at­tor­neys in­formed Gill that he in­tends to ap­peal, Duke took to so­cial me­dia to an­nounce his de­ci­sion and main­tain his in­no­cence.

“When an in­no­cent man does no wrong, who can­not be con­vict­ed based on the facts put be­fore the court, could be deemed guilty and forced to pay a $1,200 fine, it is a dark day for jus­tice,” Duke said.

While Duke claimed he was con­fi­dent that he would be even­tu­al­ly ac­quit­ted by the Court of Ap­peal, he sug­gest­ed that he was still will­ing to take the case fur­ther.

“If we are not sat­is­fied there we will go all the way to the Privy Coun­cil, where the Law Lords are still not both­ered by the pol­i­tics in our coun­try will rule in our favour,” Duke said.

Duke even post­ed a video be­fore his hear­ing be­fore Mag­is­trate Gill and claimed that the charge and con­vic­tion was a po­lit­i­cal con­spir­a­cy.

“I did not pull that fire alarm. I was set up,” he said, as he claimed that he was pos­ing by the alarm for a pho­to­graph and did not pull it.

In pass­ing the sen­tence on Duke, Gill said that he was of pre­vi­ous good char­ac­ter but not­ed that the of­fence was se­ri­ous as it po­ten­tial­ly af­fect­ed the State’s re­sources.

Gill im­posed to high­est fine pos­si­ble for the of­fence but did not ap­ply the as­so­ci­at­ed three-month prison term be­cause of his good char­ac­ter.

In the event that Duke fails to pay the fine in a month’s time, he will be forced to serve three months in prison.

Ac­cord­ing to the charge, Duke was ac­cused of trip­ping a fire alarm at the Ari­ma Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion’s of­fice at Hol­lis Av­enue, Ari­ma, dur­ing protest ac­tion on Sep­tem­ber 19, 2017.

Un­der the Fire Ser­vices Act, the of­fence car­ries a max­i­mum penal­ty of a $1,200 fine and three months im­pris­on­ment.

The case was pros­e­cut­ed by Veona Neal-Munroe. Duke was rep­re­sent­ed by Tra­vers Sinanan.