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MP loses bid to have DPP disclose how former co-accused became Crown witness
BY PAUL HENRY Observer staff reporter henryp@jamaicaobserver.com
Saturday, June 20, 2009
KERN Spencer, the embattled former junior minister, yesterday lost in his bid to have the Judicial Review Court compel the director of public prosecutions to disclose how Rodney Chin, his co-accused in the Cuban light bulb scandal, became a witness for the Crown.
The Judicial Review Court, in dismissing the motion for disclosure, directed that Spencer's legal team make the application, pursuant to Section 25 (2) of the Constitution, in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court, where Spencer will go on trial this Monday.
However, should Spencer's legal team decide to take its application for disclosure to the magistrate's court, as advised by the Judicial Review Court, the highly anticipated trial could hit a snag.
Immediately following yesterday's decision, Patrick Atkinson, the lead attorney on Spencer's legal team, indicated an intent to file for an appeal. The appeal was, however, not filed because the ruling was handed down late in the afternoon.
Spencer and Coleen Wright, his former executive assistant, who was a supervisor at the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, are to be tried for breaching Government's procurement guidelines.
Spencer on Tuesday took Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn to court, seeking an order for her to disclose any conversation or communication between her and/or any of her agents and Chin's lawyer on the changing of Chin's status in the case.
According to Spencer's legal team, the information was needed to better prepare for his trial. The lawyers were of the view that Chin may have been offered a deal by the prosecution for his testimony and that the subsequent award of lucrative government contracts to Chin may have been his motive to turn state witness.
But lawyers for the DPP said during the hearing that no deal was offered to Chin and that it was Chin's lawyer who approached the director, indicating Chin's desire to become a state witness. All this information, the hearing was told, had been disclosed to Spencer's legal team along with a copy of Chin's statement.
Spencer, Chin and Wright were arrested in February last year following a probe into the distribution of four million bulbs, a gift from the Cuban government which cost taxpayers $114 million. The charges against Chin were dropped in January this year and it was subsequently announced that he was a Crown witness.
Yesterday's decision was welcomed by the prosecution.
"We have always been confident that this would be the outcome. The application had no merit," said Opal Smith, the acting deputy director of public prosecutions, who appeared for the director during the hearing.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/..._FOR_KERN_.asp
BY PAUL HENRY Observer staff reporter henryp@jamaicaobserver.com
Saturday, June 20, 2009
KERN Spencer, the embattled former junior minister, yesterday lost in his bid to have the Judicial Review Court compel the director of public prosecutions to disclose how Rodney Chin, his co-accused in the Cuban light bulb scandal, became a witness for the Crown.
The Judicial Review Court, in dismissing the motion for disclosure, directed that Spencer's legal team make the application, pursuant to Section 25 (2) of the Constitution, in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court, where Spencer will go on trial this Monday.
However, should Spencer's legal team decide to take its application for disclosure to the magistrate's court, as advised by the Judicial Review Court, the highly anticipated trial could hit a snag.
Immediately following yesterday's decision, Patrick Atkinson, the lead attorney on Spencer's legal team, indicated an intent to file for an appeal. The appeal was, however, not filed because the ruling was handed down late in the afternoon.
Spencer and Coleen Wright, his former executive assistant, who was a supervisor at the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, are to be tried for breaching Government's procurement guidelines.
Spencer on Tuesday took Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn to court, seeking an order for her to disclose any conversation or communication between her and/or any of her agents and Chin's lawyer on the changing of Chin's status in the case.
According to Spencer's legal team, the information was needed to better prepare for his trial. The lawyers were of the view that Chin may have been offered a deal by the prosecution for his testimony and that the subsequent award of lucrative government contracts to Chin may have been his motive to turn state witness.
But lawyers for the DPP said during the hearing that no deal was offered to Chin and that it was Chin's lawyer who approached the director, indicating Chin's desire to become a state witness. All this information, the hearing was told, had been disclosed to Spencer's legal team along with a copy of Chin's statement.
Spencer, Chin and Wright were arrested in February last year following a probe into the distribution of four million bulbs, a gift from the Cuban government which cost taxpayers $114 million. The charges against Chin were dropped in January this year and it was subsequently announced that he was a Crown witness.
Yesterday's decision was welcomed by the prosecution.
"We have always been confident that this would be the outcome. The application had no merit," said Opal Smith, the acting deputy director of public prosecutions, who appeared for the director during the hearing.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/..._FOR_KERN_.asp