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woiie mi belly Paula clobbered! DPP loses battle against RM
Case for mention April 19
BY PAUL HENRY Crime/Court Co-ordinator henryp@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, April 14, 2011
BATTLING to stave off a historic but undesirable legal precedent, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn yesterday took her fight against a vexatious subpoena to the Jamaican High Court.
If Llewellyn loses, she could have the dubious distinction of being the first sitting DPP to be forced to testify for the defence in a case which she is marshalling against former junior energy minister Kern Spencer in the highly contentious Cuban light bulb trial.
LLEWELLYN... heading to Supreme Court
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After losing her battle in Judith Pusey's Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court to defeat a subpoena by the defence to have her give evidence, Llewellyn immediately indicated she would turn to the High Court to have the subpoena set aside.
Attorney K D Knight, who is representing Coleen Wright -- co-accused of Spencer, an Opposition member of parliament -- expressed dismay at the planned appeal to the Supreme Court, saying that it was the first time in his experience that he has seen the prosecution "challenge almost all the ruling made against it by a magistrate".
Knight, at the same time, questioned whether these challenges were meant to intimidate the magistrate. However, RM Pusey, in response, said she was not of the view that the challenges were meant to intimidate the bench.
"Is it now that rulings cannot be made against the crown?" Knight questioned. "Something is wrong about this, something is wrong," he said.
Knight had told Llewellyn earlier not to "allow ego to take precedence over justice".
As a result of Llewellyn's planned appeal to the High Court, the Cuban light bulb trial has been adjourned, pending the outcome of that matter. The light bulb case will be mentioned in the Corporate Area RM Court on April 19.
Llewellyn's application was made shortly after she was served the subpoena at 10:07 yesterday morning.
That subpoena came a day after Pusey ruled that the DPP should leave the court for the duration of the evidence of star prosecution witness Rodney Chin, as she could be called as a witness for the defence based on an interview she had conducted with Chin in November 2008 while he was still an accused in the case.
Chin was charged along with Spencer and the MP's former personal assistant Wright, but after his meeting with Llewellyn in the offices of his attorney, the charges against him were dropped in return for his evidence for the prosecution.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...#ixzz1JVT84IlC
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