By Grace Q. Bryant
A criminal investigation got underway at the Monrovia City Court into a ‘fake’ bond filed before with false signatures and phone numbers of William Wisseh Pritchard and Anthony Owen.
Pritchard and Owen had gone to the court to serve as sureties for Pritchard’s son Jesses T. Roberts whose wife Edith Roberts sued for persistent non-support and domestic violence.
Roberts’ persistent non-support and domestic violence case was filed before Magistrate Lasana Kamara.
Immediately after the hearing of the case, Pritchard and Owen signed the bond as sureties for Roberts; a decision that prompted Magistrate Kamara to release Roberts, with a condition that if he does not meet up with his child’s support obligation, the sureties will be held responsible.
Minutes after Pritchard and Owen left the court, their names, signatures and phone numbers also sufficed as sureties to a criminal appearance bond filed on behalf of one Sylvester Roger.
The Roger’s “fake” bond was allegedly filed by Cllr. Morris Massaquoi who claimed to be the lawyer of defendant Roger.
Massaquoi’s bond was filed before another magistrate, Ben Barco, who happens to be the head of the court while Roger’s bond was discovered after Roger had failed to appear for his scheduling court date, which was May 24.
Immediately after Roger refused to show up for his court hearing it was when the court officers decided to call Pritchard and Owen through their phone numbers requesting them to appear before Magistrate Barco and to give reason about Roger’s bail jumping
To their upmost surprised, when Pritchard and Owen appeared they were ordered arrested and place on the prison bench alone with other hide core criminals.
Later did they know that they have signed a bond on behalf of Massaquoi’s client, Roger, which they denied and said, they have no knowledge of the appearance of their names on Rogers bond.
After their denial, it was when Magistrate Barco ordered his clerk to conduct an immediate investigation of the matter, which investigation was completed on Thursday with the court apologizing to the duo, calming that it was a mistake.
However, after the release of the investigation, Pritchard, in an accounting interview with judicial reporters said, he does not accept the apology and was going to take his case before Chief Justice Sie -A-Nyene Yuoh
“This is a serious criminal offence committed before this court and against us by using the bond we filed for my son for the release of a criminal defendant,” Pritchard said.
“How could a lawyer connive with the court officers by forging our signatures when we have not authorized Massaquoi to file this on their behalf,” he said.
