McNicolls threatens to drop all charges

IF THE prosecution does not “get its house in order” by May 5, Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls will discharge the charges laid against former Government Ministers Brian Kuei Tung and Russell Huggins; CEO of Northern Construction Ltd (NCL), Ishwar Galbaransingh; financial comptroller of NCL, Amrith Maharaj,;CEO of Maritime General Insurance Company, John Henry Smith, chairman of the Maritime Group of Companies, Steve Ferguson and company secretary, Barbara Gomes.

The eight were charged with 21 offences related to the new terminal development at the Piarco International Airport. The magistrate’s decision came following an application by defence attorney Frank Solomon SC that his clients, Smith and Gomes, be discharged “immediately.” He (Solomon) had moments earlier demanded that the prosecution, represented by Deputy DPP Carla Brown-Antoine, apologise for the unprofessional manner in which it had handled the issue of disclosure and acknowledge that it (the prosecution) had failed in its duty to provide full disclosure and needed the help of the defence team.

Brown-Antoine, however, refused to concede, insisting that disclosure was an “ongoing process” and the process would be made easier if the defence would indicate to the prosecution the documents that were needed. In addition, she said, the limited availability of Public Service resources, on which the prosecution had to rely, hampered the disclosure process. “The prosecutor has no idea what she has and has not disclosed,” Solomon ranted. “We are not inclined to tell her what she has not disclosed. We have been good enough to tell her that there are 73 documents missing. If she has the modesty to admit that she doesn’t know what was disclosed, we can move on with the case,” the attorney added.

He described the manner in which the prosecution was executing its duties as “a waste of judicial time and an abuse of process.” “My clients cannot be coming here day after day to be oppressed,” he added. The rest of the defence team, in like fashion, made submission to have their clients discharged. The State, Solomon continued, had clearly defied an order given by McNicolls on March 16, that the prosecution provide the defence with advanced notice of a list of the proposed witnesses, together with a list of the documents relevant to the witnesses’ evidence. The lists were supposed to be handed over to the defence before or at a scheduled meeting with both parties, in which an attempt at finding “some common ground” was to be made.

Both sides confirmed that the meeting had taken place at the DPP’s office on March 31, but the defence complained that they had not received the lists of witnesses and documents until the following day. It was then, Solomon said, the defence team realised that the prosecution had neglected to disclose a total of 73 documents. The State, McNicolls said, had to realise that it was up against the “most formidable team of attorneys” and was required to be fully prepared. “The prosecution will have to assemble a better team to prosecute this matter,” he added. 

Although the magistrate agreed that the State had handled things in a “woeful” manner, he granted an adjournment “to keep the scales of justice in balance.” However, he warned the prosecution that it had “one last chance to do its job” and promised that if it was not ready on the next occasion, “there will be no further adjournments.” Lead prosecutor Karl Hudson-Phillips QC is out of the jurisdiction and Gilbert Peterson SC was reportedly attending to matters at the Court of Appeal.