Lady Luck was not on the side of suspected gang boss Ralph Stanfield at his second court appearance this week.
On Monday charges of fraud, corruption and possession of unlicensed firearms against Stanfield were provisionally withdrawn.
But Stanfield and his defence team were not so lucky the second time around yesterday when he appeared in the Mitchells Plain Magistrates’ court on charges of intimidation and assault.
The State alleges Stanfield intimidated and assaulted a police officer during a raid at his mother’s Beacon Valley home in April.
Hopes of having another case withdrawn quickly turned into frustration when the matter was transferred to a different magistrate and then postponed.
Stanfield first appeared in court five before Magistrate Haneem Edwards, who mistakenly called him Colin Stanfield, after his uncle, before the matter was transferred to court seven.
Here, his lawyer Pete Mihalik questioned why the matter keeps getting transferred.
“It’s inexplicable why no one wants to touch this case,” he said.
Mihalik said he had a “suspicious feeling” that the matter will be transferred again.
After Stanfield’s brief appearance in court seven, the case was postponed to November 23 for trial.
Outside court, Noorudien Hassan, who is part of Stanfield’s defence team, said the case has been transferred several times since his client’s arrest six months ago.
“This is the seventh time the matter has been postponed and the fifth magistrate the case was transferred to,” he tells the Daily Voice.