Suspended Sentence: Assault/Forged Dr’s Note

In Magistrates Court yesterday [Mar 6], Tiara Simmons, 24, was given a three months prison sentence — suspended for twenty-four months — after pleading guilty to three counts of assaulting security guards at a “Bad Girls Club” party at Snorkel Park on 8th July 2012.

She also pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice by providing a false document – a doctored Doctor’s note – to explain her failure to attend Court when ordered. This offence occurred on 13th January 2013.

Her lawyer said that the July 2012 scuffle with the guards had been helped by “Mr Hennessey” and had not caused any injury to any of the three men who were all bigger and stronger than his client.

However, Crown Prosecutor Garrett Byrne had recommended a custodial sentence for the serious offence of forging a doctor’s note and passing that note to Court and purporting it to genuine.

A Police Sergeant had noticed the form seemed off, called the Doctor’s office, and confirmed that the note was false.Her lawyer said that this offence was similar to the frequent offence of giving a false name to Police on traffic stops.

However, Senior Magistrate Archie Warner disagreed and said that this attempt was against the criminal code whereas false information tendered at a Traffic stop was against the Traffic code.

Her lawyer offered that his client was of good character and that this was her first ever appearance in Court.

Passing sentence, Magistrate Warner said that it was “particularly dangerous to mess with the Court process” but that he found that there was a special reason for suspending what would normally be an immediate custodial sentence.

The Magistrate also fined Ms Simmons $300 on each of the three counts of assault against the three Security Guards.

#CrimeInBermuda #MagistratesAndSupremeCourt

Category: All, Court Reports, Crime