Amoi Leon-Issa, the mother of the slain autistic 9-year-old, has refused the second court order to grant law enforcement access to her phone by giving them the password for the device.
This has been the second enforced order from the court that Leon-Issa has ignored since back in September when the St. James Parish Court had first given notice. The second time occurred in November when Parish Judge Sasha Ashley ruled 18 days ago to enforce the first order (Leon-Issa had filed an injunction which was overturned as well as instructed her lawyer to file for an appeal on the court orders [which there has been no further word on]), but she still refused to allow the police access to her phone.
The withdrawal of data from the phone that could be of help to the investigation was ordered to be done by Thursday, November 24. The device has been in police custody since January when the murder of young Gabriel King was committed.
King was found in the back seat of his mother’s car with his throat slit shortly after she had reported her car stolen. According to reports, Leon-Issa relayed to the authorities that she had slowed down to avoid a pothole in the road in the parish of St. James when she was forcefully removed from her car by an armed man who then got in and drove away with King still inside.
It is unclear what the next steps will be in regard to the court order.
According to Nationwide News, Chuck Cameron, Leon-Issa’s attorney who claimed that there are privacy reasons that explain her refusal to give up her password without going into details, refuses to speak on the record about the matter.
While there has hardly been any response from the police, it was relayed that the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is to decide if there will be a stay in court proceedings. Nationwide News also mentioned that efforts to contact SSP Vernon Ellis as well as the Head of the Police Area One, the Head of the St. James Police Division and Assistant Commissioner of Police Clifford Chambers have proved to be futile.
Attorney-at-Law Neco Pagan revealed that the case of Amoi Leon-Issa refusing to comply with the court order to give up her password to the police is not an isolated event and that many other individuals have disobeyed orders passed down by the court. Nonetheless, he remarked that there are other legal courses of action that can be taken to force Leon-Issa to obey.
