CHARLOTTE AMALIE — One of the three suspects arrested as part of “Operation Rewind” on an illegal drug charge was previously arrested for “constructive possession of a firearm,” just as two other suspects were during traffic enforcement on Thursday.
Arkim Clersaint, 24, was arrested Thursday and charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute (marijuana), the Virgin Islands Police Department said.
Two other individuals, Michael S. Fahie, 33, and Shaheid Maynard, 26, were also arrested that night for constructive possession of unlicensed firearms, according to the VIPD.
That’s the same charge that was dismissed against Clersaint in 2019, according to Superior Court records.
Three individuals charged with constructive possession of a firearm were improperly searched by police, and will have the evidence in their case suppressed, according to an opinion issued by Virgin Islands Superior Court Judge Denise Francois.
The co-defendants, Ojhani Inecia, Jarius Penn and Clersaint, were arrested on October 22, 2018 and charged with constructive possession of a firearm, meaning police could not determine who the gun belonged to.
The incident began when a teen went to the police station on St. John and reported being robbed at gunpoint by another boy earlier that night on the street while four of the gunman’s friends watched, according to court records.
Police said they knew the group to hang out near “the Cut” between King and Hill streets, and went to the area where they found several people standing outside.
Officers blocked the group from both sides and, thinking that the robber may have handed off the gun to one of his friends, police stopped and told the group to put their hands on the wall and wait to be frisked.
While the group was being patted down, officers located and arrested the teen gunman nearby, and found no weapons or contraband on the group standing outside, according to court records.
Officers searching the area also found a backpack on a set of stairs attached to an abandoned building next to the Cut, and all of the individuals being frisked denied ownership of the bag, according to court records.
Police opened the backpack and found a gun, and the three individuals, as well as one of the co-defendant’s younger brothers, were arrested and charged with constructive possession of a firearm.
The suspected teenage gunman was also charged with armed robbery and placed in protective custody, according to court records.
For police to search a person or location without a warrant, they must have reasonable suspicion to do so, Francois wrote in the opinion, published on July 2, 2019.
“There was no testimony that the defendants acted suspiciously. The defendants were not found where the robbery took place. In short, while the police efficiently and quickly located and arrested” the suspected gunman, “the defendants were also stopped, seized and searched without the police providing a reasonable and articulable suspicion of criminal activity with respect to the defendants,” Francois wrote.
Francois found that government prosecutors “failed to establish by clear and convincing evidence that the police in this case had reasonable suspicion to stop, detain and search the defendants while they were looking for,” the gunman.
The search was a violation of the co-defendants’ Fourth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution, and “all evidence, including the firearm and ammunition garnered as a consequence of the unconstitutional stop, seizure and arrest of the Defendants will be suppressed,” Francois wrote.
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