BARBARA GAYLE, Staff Reporter

A woman who complained toThe STAR a few weeks ago that the Registrar General's De-partment (RGD) had wrongly identified her as being married has been cleared by the police handwriting expert.

Paula Doreen Dixon had never been married but there were records at the Registrar General's Department indicating that she did so in 1997. Her story was published in THE STAR on January 26, after she was accompanied by attorney-at-law Seymour Stewart to the North Street offices of The Gleaner company.

A suit was filed in the Supreme Court against the RGD and the attorney-general by attorney-at-law Donald Gittens who was instructed by Stewart.

Mr. Justice Bryan Sykes heard an application in chambers and ordered the Registrar General's Department to hand over a marriage certificate in the name of Paula Doreen Dixon so that a determination could be made by a police handwriting expert.

Dixon complained that her mother filed for her and her three children to reside in the U.S.A. On February 8, 2006, she applied to the RGD for a certificate of no impediment to marriage but much to her surprise she was informed that the records revealed that she got married in 1997 to one Keith Booker.

As a result of the allegedly false information, Dixon said when she went to the United States Embassy on February 10, 2006, for an interview, she and her children were not granted the visas. She said she was informed by a consular officer at the embassy that if she did not provide the certificate within a year of her interview, the process could take another five or six years to complete.

The RGD handed over the marriage certificate with the alleged signature of Dixon and the police handwriting expert conducted tests and made comparisons with Dixon's signature in her passport as well as additional samples of her handwriting with that on the marriage certificate. The lawyers took the results to the Supreme Court after the handwriting expert found that the signature on the marriage certificate was not that of Miss Dixon.

The matter subsequently went before Mr. Justice Courtney Daye who granted a declaration that the handwriting on the marriage certificate from the RGD was not that of Ms. Dixon.

Attorney-at-law Seymour Stewart told THE STAR that the declaration was granted a day before Ms. Dixon's deadline at the American Embassy would have expired and he understands that her application was now being processed.