Crime
Jamaican Dancehall Star Mavado With Outstanding Warrant: Details Confirmed by Police and Attorney | The Gleaner
Jamaican police confirm outstanding warrant for international dancehall star Mavado, real name David Brooks, for assault occasioning actual bodily harm in 2018. Legal issues and ongoing fraud case discussed.
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Originally published by nationnews.com (opens in new tab)
The Jamaican police have an outstanding warrant for the arrest of international dancehall star Mavado, a police official and the entertainer’s attorney have confirmed to The Gleaner.
Mavado, whose real name is David Brooks, is wanted for assault occasioning actual bodily harm arising from an incident in 2018, Deputy Superintendent Randy Sweeney, head of the St Andrew North Police, revealed.
Sweeney declined to disclose details of the alleged assault.
Oswest Senior-Smith, one of the entertainer’s attorneys, acknowledged that he had been “officially notified” of the warrant, which was issued on June 9, 2018.
According to Senior-Smith, the warrant is based on a complaint by Anthony Goulbourne.
Goulbourne’s complaint was made after he was arrested and charged by the police for allegedly shooting at Mavado in June 2018, the attorney noted.
“He has always denied any offence that could give rise to a warrant and particularly the assault that is alleged. That has always been his position,” Senior-Smith said during an interview with The Gleaner on Friday.
Questions have been swirling for years about whether there is an arrest warrant for the Gully Side hit-maker, who now resides overseas.
The issue came up in 2022 when the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) – Jamaica’s prosecutorial authority – sought to get approval for Mavado to give evidence via video-link in the fraud case against disbarred attorney Jennifer Messado.
The entertainer, who has claimed that he was fleeced of $30 million by Messado in a real estate deal, is the complainant in that case.
However, the case hit a snag after it was revealed that authorisation for Mavado to give his evidence via video-link could only be granted if there was no outstanding warrant for him in Jamaica.
That fraud case against Messado is ongoing.
In a social media post at the time, Mavado railed at what he described as a “fake warrant” and corrupt cops at the Constant Spring Police Station.
The entertainer said up to the time he left Jamaica, his attorneys were in constant dialogue with the Jamaican police, and there was never any mention of a warrant for his arrest.
“Nothing like that was said to my lawyers over a four-year period,” he said in a post on his Instagram account in 2022.
However, Senior-Smith, his attorney, said the ODPP has since confirmed the existence of the warrant.
