The sentencing of former CINICO CEO Lonny Tibbetts has been delayed due to a disagreement on the terms of a plea deal.
Tibbetts was charged and originally due to stand trial for one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. However, on 22 Nov. 2021, the day of the trial, he entered a last-minute guilty plea to a lesser charge of common assault.
The charges stemmed from an incident outside Al La Kebab, at the Marquee Plaza on West Bay Road, in April 2019, during which Tibbetts is said to have assaulted a woman by throwing food in her face.
“My lady will remember that on the morning of 22 November at around 11am Mr Tibbetts entered a guilty plea to a charge of common assault,” prosecutor Scott Wainwright told Magistrate Philippa McFarlane on Tuesday, 22 Feb.
He added, “That guilty plea was only acceptable to the prosecution on the full facts of the prosecution’s case.”
The court heard that the prosecution’s case is that Tibbetts threw food in the woman’s face, and when she retaliated and threw food in his face, he then grabbed her by the hair, dragged her to the ground and assaulted her.
Tibbetts accepted that he threw food in the woman’s face and that amounted to assault. He denies grabbing or hitting her.
“I am very unhappy with how this case has progressed,” said McFarlane, who explained that she could not sentence Tibbetts due to the disagreement on the facts of what transpired between Tibbetts and the victim.
McFarlane went on to note that Tuesday’s hearing was the third in as many months since Tibbetts pleaded guilty. She also stressed that she had previously called for both parties to find an agreed basis for the plea deal in order for Tibbetts to be sentenced.
“What’s more, a review of the victim impact report shows that the victim in the matter does not seem to understand the prosecution’s reasons for accepting a plea to a lesser charge,” said McFarlane.
When explaining her client’s position, Amelia Fosuhene apologised to the court and noted that a miscommunication had led to the delay.
Fosuhene told the court that, despite the guilty plea, Tibbetts did not accept the facts as laid out by the prosecution, and said there were other legal reasons that would require the courts to question how the prosecution arrived at its decision.
To do so, a Newton hearing has been set for 17 March. A Newton hearing occurs when a defendant pleads guilty to an offence, but the prosecution and the defence are unable to agree on the facts, so a judge listens to both parties to decide who is telling the truth. During these Hearings, both sides are allowed to call live witnesses.
A security officer who was at the scene of the assault and a civilian witness are expected to present evidence at the upcoming hearing, which will be heard before a different judge.
Tibbetts’s bail was continued.
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