Magistrate uses Church’s Chicken to end a ‘third generation’ family feud
Senior Magistrate Alex Moore
By Leroy Smith
A third generation family feud which found it’s way in the No.51 courtroom in mid-May caused a magistrate to send two persons who were charged with abusive and threatening behavior to buy Church’s Chicken as he told them ‘Church’s costs less than bail money’
32 Year old Mercia Williams and 28 year old Nasaskia Kendall of No.48 Village, Corentyne Berbice appeared before Senior Magistrate Alex Moore to answer the charges stated above. It turned out that the two were born into two separate families which had a family feud running three generations before them.
On Wednesday May 22, Nasaskia Kendall and Mercia Williams along with Williams’s mother and aunt, Linda Grimond, Cecelia Williams also found themselves before the magistrate. The latter two are two of the seniors in the family and who has over the generations, been living through and keeping the family feud alive.
It was in court that the Magistrate as he sometime does with certain matters, decided that he wanted to try an ‘unusual solution’ to prevent the generation feud from moving onto their next generation and asked the parties involved if they were interested in the process.
“No” said Ms Kendall who clearly did not know what the magistrate was getting at while Williams said “yes”. Williams was commended by the magistrate for her maturity in trying to have the process done in the face of the seemingly disinterest on the part of Ms. Kendall.
It turned out that Mercia Williams has two young children who she is afraid might also be sucked into the ongoing feud in the years to come, hence her decision to support the process.
It was the usual pre-trial episode that Magistrate Moore usually conducts when hearing certain matters were he would seek to get a background to the matters that caused the parties to end up before him as against just reading the charges as filed on the police case jackets and then going straight to adjudication.
In the process the magistrate learnt that each was told that the feud had started as a result of the fault of the other family. On the day in question, each was merely displeased with the way the relatives of the other were acting towards them and their family and sought to give voice to this displeasure.
The Magistrate repeatedly asked the young ladies if they realized how much they and their families had in common. The realization on their faces was evident.
Magistrate Alex Moore told the two ladies that he would allow them to meet at a place of mutual convenience to discuss their experiences over a meal. He outlined that they were to introduce themselves to each other and reveal what it was like growing up in the wake of the feud they were born into.
The two women were to also share their feelings as two people on opposite sides of the conflict which they clearly had no part in mushrooming. They were to also return to their respective families and share what they learnt from each other.
On the other hand, the Magistrate turned to the older relatives who were also in court and cautioned them “While it is your choice to learn from this process, it is within your powers to decide if this generation feud must end or continue to live on”
At that point the two younger relatives decided to that they will meet at Church’s Chicken at Rose Hall to have their “sit and chat”
They were asked about their bail monies and if they walked with same, to which they indicated their respective elders had the bail monies to post bail if it was needed.
“I would be rewarding your maturity by placing you both on your own recognizance so that now you could use some of the bail money on the more enjoyable acquisition of food at Church’s”
Kendall works at a bank and Williams is a stock farmer. “You know, you never know if you Ms, Williams will ever need a loan to expand your farm and maybe Ms, Kendall might at some point need some curry goat” Magistrate Moore told the two.
The two elders were also allowed to go on their own recognizance by the magistrate as he opined that perhaps they would not ask the two younger relatives back for the bail monies.
Cognizant that the arrangement between the two young ladies would take some time, as too, would time be needed for the chicken to digest, the matter was adjourned for six weeks later which saw the two returning to court on Wednesday last.
Upon their return the court heard that the two young lady spent three hours at Church’s restaurant before moving over to a popular snacked called ‘spreadys’
The two women told the court on Wednesday that they learned about each other and developed deep mutual appreciation. It turned out they were in a class together at the University but never spoke with each other due to the ongoing feud within the families.
The Williams' have a relative who is mentally challenged and does have some episodes. One of the seniors had accused Kendall’s children of teasing her. It however turned out that the Kendall’s also have an uncle with similar challenges as the Williams and would never have tolerated their kids doing such. The Williams were shocked.
The young ladies formed the opinion that the other was a very good person. They were asked if they went for a second meeting because they had more to discuss but the two indicated to the court that the second meeting at Spreadys was due to a bond which had already been built from the first meeting at Church’s.
At the end of it all, the elders were asked by the magistrate what they learnt from the two younger relatives “other than Church’s costs less than bail money” but while they did not easily relinquished their bitterness, they each claimed to have learnt that the other family was not as bad they thought.
The 2 younger ones vowed that regardless of what their seniors did, the passing down of the feud would end with them.
The matter was settled and dismissed.
