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Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter NORTH EAST St Elizabeth Member of Parliament Kern Spencer could walk out of court a free man in the coming days, and so, too, could his co-accused and companion, Coleen Wright.
Counsel representing the two yesterday moved for the fraud case against them to be dismissed when the matter came up before Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey in the Corporate Area court.
The matter is set to continue on Thursday, and already, Pusey has said the critical issue at play is credibility.
"Credibility, this is what the case is about," Pusey said, adding that her job required her to have a juror's mind.
Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn has been accused of prosecutorial misconduct by Wright's lawyer, K.D. Knight, who said his client was being denied the right to a fair trial.
Credibility questioned
Spencer's counsel, Patrick Atkinson, who will resume his submission on Thursday, associated himself with the remarks and said Llewellyn's handling of the matter had called her credibility into question.
"It is necessary that the principle of a fair trial is always pre-eminent in processes of this nature," Knight said as he made the application for the case to be dismissed.
The trial of the matter connected to the Cuban light-bulb scandal has been stalled for more than six months following statements made in the witness box by former co-accused Rodney Chin.
Yesterday, the matter turned on its head when Lord Anthony Gifford, representing the Crown, said the prosecution had fully complied with an order for disclosure after the most recent letter was provided to defence counsel by Llewellyn last Friday.
Knight went through a series of documents in court and drew attention to discrepancies in statements provided by Llewellyn and lead investigator Superintendent of Police Fitz Bailey.
Damage far worse
The disclosure presented to defence counsel on Friday indicated that Chin had not presented investigators with a statement at the time when Llewellyn first met with him in his attorney's office.
Llewellyn had said in previous letters that a statement existed at the time she met with Chin.
"I categorise what has taken place to be obfuscation and circumvention," Knight said.
Pusey said the latest disclosure was "far worse" damaging to the Crown's case because it indicated that the DPP met with Chin while he was still charged.
Chin was charged jointly with Spencer and Wright in 2008 with money laundering and fraud arising out of the implementation of the Cuban light-bulb programmes. The prosecution later dropped the charges against him and made him into a Crown witness. Although Chin maintained that he had never been made any offers or received any inducements to testify against Spencer and Wright, the defence said they did not buy his story.
They asked Llewellyn to provide them with a statement indicating how Chin moved from being an accused to having the charges dropped against him. However, Llewellyn said and maintained there was nothing to disclose.
The defence went as far as to the High Court but was unsuccessful in getting further disclosure. But while on the stand, Chin made certain statements which again led defence counsel to demand full disclosure. Further statements were presented to the court by investigators and letters were written to defence counsel by Llewellyn. Knight said examination of the documents told a mysterious tale.
"This is the gospel of the tangled web we weave," he said in court.
The Queen's Counsel reminded the court that he had concluded his cross-examination of Chin, which, he said, was predicated on Llewellyn's insistence there was nothing more to disclose.
"The actions of the DPP are tantamount to prosecutorial misconduct. If the trial is not fair, then the court is obliged to throw it out," Knight said.
daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...ead/lead3.html
Counsel representing the two yesterday moved for the fraud case against them to be dismissed when the matter came up before Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey in the Corporate Area court.
The matter is set to continue on Thursday, and already, Pusey has said the critical issue at play is credibility.
"Credibility, this is what the case is about," Pusey said, adding that her job required her to have a juror's mind.
Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn has been accused of prosecutorial misconduct by Wright's lawyer, K.D. Knight, who said his client was being denied the right to a fair trial.
Credibility questioned
Spencer's counsel, Patrick Atkinson, who will resume his submission on Thursday, associated himself with the remarks and said Llewellyn's handling of the matter had called her credibility into question.
"It is necessary that the principle of a fair trial is always pre-eminent in processes of this nature," Knight said as he made the application for the case to be dismissed.
The trial of the matter connected to the Cuban light-bulb scandal has been stalled for more than six months following statements made in the witness box by former co-accused Rodney Chin.
Yesterday, the matter turned on its head when Lord Anthony Gifford, representing the Crown, said the prosecution had fully complied with an order for disclosure after the most recent letter was provided to defence counsel by Llewellyn last Friday.
Knight went through a series of documents in court and drew attention to discrepancies in statements provided by Llewellyn and lead investigator Superintendent of Police Fitz Bailey.
Damage far worse
The disclosure presented to defence counsel on Friday indicated that Chin had not presented investigators with a statement at the time when Llewellyn first met with him in his attorney's office.
Llewellyn had said in previous letters that a statement existed at the time she met with Chin.
"I categorise what has taken place to be obfuscation and circumvention," Knight said.
Pusey said the latest disclosure was "far worse" damaging to the Crown's case because it indicated that the DPP met with Chin while he was still charged.
Chin was charged jointly with Spencer and Wright in 2008 with money laundering and fraud arising out of the implementation of the Cuban light-bulb programmes. The prosecution later dropped the charges against him and made him into a Crown witness. Although Chin maintained that he had never been made any offers or received any inducements to testify against Spencer and Wright, the defence said they did not buy his story.
They asked Llewellyn to provide them with a statement indicating how Chin moved from being an accused to having the charges dropped against him. However, Llewellyn said and maintained there was nothing to disclose.
The defence went as far as to the High Court but was unsuccessful in getting further disclosure. But while on the stand, Chin made certain statements which again led defence counsel to demand full disclosure. Further statements were presented to the court by investigators and letters were written to defence counsel by Llewellyn. Knight said examination of the documents told a mysterious tale.
"This is the gospel of the tangled web we weave," he said in court.
The Queen's Counsel reminded the court that he had concluded his cross-examination of Chin, which, he said, was predicated on Llewellyn's insistence there was nothing more to disclose.
"The actions of the DPP are tantamount to prosecutorial misconduct. If the trial is not fair, then the court is obliged to throw it out," Knight said.
daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...ead/lead3.html
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