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Judge stands by order to have defence examine phones
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
RESIDENT Magistrate Judith Pusey yesterday ruled that there would be no changes made to her initial order, which will allow the defence attorneys in the Cuban lightbulb trial to examine three Samsung cellular phones belonging to crown witness Rodney Chin.
However, the judge ordered the defence to exercise strict adherence to the recommendation in the order, which states, "the devices should not be manipulated in any way whatsoever that will reproduce data on the devices that are not connected or relevant to the case, destroy or alter any data on the devices and render the devices defective".
The defence attorneys, who are representing former junior energy minister Kern Spencer and his executive assistant Coleen Wright in the Cuban lightbulb trial, were also instructed to use the appropriate software if the devices would be attached to a computer to extract the data, to prevent the phones being affected by computer viruses.
At the same time, Pusey stressed that anything taken from the devices must be the subject of an application for disclosure.
Spencer and Wright were charged with several breaches of the Anti Corruption Act after irregularities were found in the distribution of four million energy saving lightbulbs which were given to Jamaica by Cuba in 2006.
Chin had also been charged, but the charges against him were dropped after he agreed to turn state witness.
The phones, bearing recordings, have already been entered into evidence.
The defence team had complained last week that they did not trust the authenticity of the recordings which were downloaded from the phones and sought permission to conduct their own examination of the phones.
The examination was halted after Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn told the court that sections of the initial order had been breached. According to Llewellyn, the defence team's cyber analyst had been seen downloading images, pictures, text messages and writing down numbers from the phones.
As a result the prosecution had asked that the order be revised.
The examination of the instruments is to be conducted at the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court at a date that is to be agreed on by the crown and the defence.
The trial is expected to continue on February 8.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
RESIDENT Magistrate Judith Pusey yesterday ruled that there would be no changes made to her initial order, which will allow the defence attorneys in the Cuban lightbulb trial to examine three Samsung cellular phones belonging to crown witness Rodney Chin.
However, the judge ordered the defence to exercise strict adherence to the recommendation in the order, which states, "the devices should not be manipulated in any way whatsoever that will reproduce data on the devices that are not connected or relevant to the case, destroy or alter any data on the devices and render the devices defective".
The defence attorneys, who are representing former junior energy minister Kern Spencer and his executive assistant Coleen Wright in the Cuban lightbulb trial, were also instructed to use the appropriate software if the devices would be attached to a computer to extract the data, to prevent the phones being affected by computer viruses.
At the same time, Pusey stressed that anything taken from the devices must be the subject of an application for disclosure.
Spencer and Wright were charged with several breaches of the Anti Corruption Act after irregularities were found in the distribution of four million energy saving lightbulbs which were given to Jamaica by Cuba in 2006.
Chin had also been charged, but the charges against him were dropped after he agreed to turn state witness.
The phones, bearing recordings, have already been entered into evidence.
The defence team had complained last week that they did not trust the authenticity of the recordings which were downloaded from the phones and sought permission to conduct their own examination of the phones.
The examination was halted after Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn told the court that sections of the initial order had been breached. According to Llewellyn, the defence team's cyber analyst had been seen downloading images, pictures, text messages and writing down numbers from the phones.
As a result the prosecution had asked that the order be revised.
The examination of the instruments is to be conducted at the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court at a date that is to be agreed on by the crown and the defence.
The trial is expected to continue on February 8.
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