L.A. Lewis Arrested On Bench Warrant

Paramount Chief High Priest and entertainer L.A. Lewis was arrested by police officers on Saturday in Spanish Town as they executed a bench warrant that had been issued for his arrest.

“We had been tracking his movement for quite some time and heard his pronouncements that the judge must make an appointment to come see him. So when we realized that he went live on Instagram, we notified the warrants department and made the arrest,” a source told DancehallMag.

L.A. Lewis will appear in the St. Catherine Parish court this morning to answer to the breaches of the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA). The last time L.A. Lewis made a court appearance, he was ordered to do a psychiatric evaluation.

He is charged jointly with Ras Nature Forever and Ras Wadewade Selassie I.

Earlier this year, L.A Lewis, whose real name is Horace Lewis, told a DancehallMag reporter that the bench warrant which has been issued to compel him to attend court is “unlawful”, and tantamount to “kidnapping”.

“I only entertained her (the judge) two times by making a guest appearance in court…you cannot issue a bench warrant for someone who has not broken the law,” the entertainer, whose real name is Horace Lewis, said.

A bench warrant had been issued after he failed to show for his scheduled matter in the St Catherine Parish Court in March. His failure to appear triggered the bench warrant, which is issued to compel persons to attend court if they fail to do so.

Lewis had said any attempt to arrest him was tantamount to ” kidnapping plain and simple”.

“I am not a Jamaican, I am not a black man, I am a Maroon, a tribal sovereign, and native of the Nyan-Ko-Pong Maroons, Turtle Island. The judge herself knows that locking me up is an attempt at kidnapping, a breach of human rights laws and conduct at the international level,” he was quoted as saying earlier this year.

Lewis, who has rechristened himself the ‘Paramount Chief High Priest of the Nyan-Ko-Pong Maroons’, has repeatedly posited in interviews that the Westminster Law cannot charge anyone who lays claim to being a Maroon. He believes that Maroon Law allows him the right to cultural integrity, the right to self-determination, and the right to equality before the law and freedom from discrimination.