# The SBHonline Community Daily > Everything Else >  >  ALCOHOL, DRUGS, THEFT... ROUTINE AT THE HELM OF THE COURT

## JEK

*ALCOHOL, DRUGS, THEFT... ROUTINE AT THE HELM OF THE COURT*
by TF
  04/14/2022

*Last Thursday, a hearing of the local correctional court was held in the large hall of the captain's office in Gustavia. Few files but current affairs on the island of Saint-Barthélemy with drunk and drug-producted driving as well as a theft of jewelry from a hotel shop.* On January 7, it is about 5 a.m. when a 23-year-old woman loses control of her scooter and falls violently. Seriously injured in one knee, she is quickly taken care of by the emergency services that her companion, who follows her on her two-wheeler, calls for help immediately after the accident. When the gendarmes carry out the control tests on the injured woman, they find that she has a level of 3.11 grams of alcohol per liter of blood. "An exceptional rate," laments the president of the court. I dare not imagine your condition and I wonder how you managed to get on your scooter. The magistrate notes that the defendant has never dealt with the courts. "Well, for an introduction, you hit hard," rumbles the judge.
During her audition, the young woman explains that she drank Téquila, Vodka and other alcohols before going to a disco. "I didn't feel drunk during the evening," she says. I consume alcohol like everyone else, from time to time. The Public Prosecutor jumps and says: "To get on a scooter, start it and roll on it with more than three grams in blood, you have to be used to drinking! For a woman of Madame's size, at three grams, normally, we are in a coma. The defendant still acknowledges that she has no memory of her accident. "It's the black hole, I don't remember anything," she blows. Waitress, she made her first "season" in Saint Barth. She is sentenced to a three-month suspended prison sentence. His driver's license is suspended for a period of six months.
His companion is also summoned to the hearing. If he called for help and accompanied his friend to the hospital, he refused to take the blood alcohol test. "I didn't understand why the gendarmes asked me to take the test, I was only the escort," he explains to the court bar. He says he tried to prevent his friend from taking his scooter, in particular by confiscating the keys. "But we took the lead and she left," he adds. The problem for the young man, also seasonal, is that he has already been convicted twice for alcoholic driving in 2017 and 2018 in France. The prosecutor demands two months in prison. The accused decomposes when he hears the requisitions. Finally, the court chooses to acquitte him.*Alcohol in the blood, cocaine in the pockets*
The next defendant is barely older than the previous ones. Aged 27, he works and lives on the island. On February 11, around 3:45 a.m., a gendarmerie patrol saw him driving on his scooter in Gustavia, but not very straight. The two-wheeler is stopped. The driver has difficulty expressing himself distinctly and searches for his papers in a disorderly way. So much so that by searching his pockets, he drops a bag containing cocaine. According to the gendarmes, it contains 1.3 grams of white powder. "I was coming out of a nightclub and picked up my scooter that I had parked in front of my work," explains the defendant. I took a coke rail from a friend's house before leaving but it was the first time. When the gendarmes ask him about the origin of the drug, he assures that he does not know the person who sold them to him. "But you say that you always buy them from him," maliciously notes the president of the court. "Yes, I only buy them every six months," replies the defendant. The magistrate smiles. "Ah, now it's no longer a single consumption but every six months," laughs the judge.
At the same time, a test reveals that the young man has a blood alcohol level of 2.42 grams per liter of blood. Again, he says he drinks only very occasionally. And never before taking the handlebars. "It's great in Saint Barth, the gendarmes only arrest first-time offenders," jokes the prosecutor, who demands a six-month suspended prison sentence and ten months of driver's license suspension. The court imposes a sentence of 4 months suspended imprisonment and six months of suspension of the licence on the accused. *"Treating" by colleagues*
The president asked the following defendant: "Do you have a problem with alcohol? The 45-year-old man answers: "I stopped, like narcotics. But that day, I was "trapped" by colleagues. And since I couldn't sleep on the spot... He made the decision to go home on a scooter. It was January 19. On the way back, around 10 p.m., he came across a gendarmerie patrol in Saint-Jean. Driven to the gendarmerie, it blows into the alcohol meter which detects a level of 0.70 milligrams of alcohol per liter of exhaled air (1.4 grams of alcohol per liter of blood). "The most worrying thing is that at the time of the facts, the gentleman does not stagger, speaks clearly, which shows a habit," says the prosecutor. Already sentenced three times for similar facts in 2005, 2013 and 2017, the accused is sentenced to a 3-month suspended prison sentence with an obligation to care and a cancellation of his driver's license. *The Philadelphia retiree splashes jewelry*
The following file concerns an accused who is none other than a U.S. tourist. "She has been targeted by summonses several times," says the president of the court, who adds that the person concerned is a native of Philadelphia and lives in the United States. On February 20, two mother-of-pearl necklaces and a pair of sunglasses were stolen from the shop of a hotel in Saint-Barthélemy. The shop manager is present at the hearing. She explains that after being warned of the "disappearance" of the objects by one of her employees, she viewed the images captured by the shop's surveillance cameras. "On the photographs, the scene is quite eloquent," comments the judge. In fact, we can see the defendant manipulating the stolen objects.
The director conducts her "small investigation" and manages to go back to the villa where the defendant and her daughter live, together on the video of the shop. The gendarmes are alerted and search the villa. They do not find the necklaces and the pair of sunglasses but a series of suspicious objects to say the least. "The defendant is not prosecuted for this but it gives a color to this file," insists the president. Faced with the photos of the shop on which she appears, the defendant firmly denies. "I showed the necklaces to my daughter, I took the glasses in my hands, but that's all," she assures the gendarmes. Aged 67, the pensioner is sentenced to a fine of 2,800 euros plus 3,904 euros to be paid to the victim, which corresponds to the amount of goods stolen. *From the prison for Gustavia's driver*
On February 18, a man was arrested after a long chase at the wheel of a car stolen from the streets of Gustavia. A crazy equipped woman who had, fortunately, made no victims. The man was able to be arrested thanks to the intervention of the population who had managed to stop his vehicle and then neutralize it before the gendarmes arrived. Transferred to Saint-Martin and then to Guadeloupe, the man in his fifties was placed in pre-trial detention until his trial. This was held on Tuesday, April 5 in Basse-Terre. The defendant was sentenced to 18 months in prison, 12 of which were suspended. He was kept in detention. In addition, he was sentenced to a ban on driving any vehicle for a period of two years

https://www.journaldesaintbarth.com/actualites/justice/alcool-drogue-vol-la-routine-a-la-barre-du-tribunal-202204141525.html?fbclid=IwAR2pE9bmJ6wS88yPWOzTv_LkuvKO2Moz90YNLeHkWYaaCFq1tDpCK2NWwAY

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## cec1

A remarkable narrative of SBH criminal activities . . . especially the recounting of theft by a Philadelphia retiree.  Mind boggling!

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## JEK

> I don't understand one thing: why are these people able to talk with such a level of alcohol in their blood???



It take much repetition and hard work :Wink-slap:

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## PIRATE40

> It take much repetition and hard work



......Many, many years of consumption consistency.....was drunk for 20 years once..no one knew... :Embarrassment:

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