Female lawyer blocked from taking notes in court

A FEMALE attorney attached to the Ministry of National Security was yesterday blocked from taking notes in the public gallery during the preliminary inquiry into a conspiracy to murder charge against Jamaat Al Muslimeen leader Yasin Abu Bakr. The attorney has been sitting in the public gallery for the past three days, taking verbatim notes. She even gains entry to the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court before attorneys and members of the media. Yesterday, lead defence attorney Pamela Elder complained to Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls about the presence of the woman in court, whom she gathered was not a member of the media. Mc Nicolls immediately inquired of the woman why she was in court. The woman said she works at the Ministry of National Security and had a personal interest in the case. She said her notes were personal. When asked by the Chief Magistrate if she was sent by the Ministry, her reply was “not really.”

Elder said the woman was not straightforward with the court judging from her answer. “How could she be employed at the Ministry of National Security and come here on her own and sit and take her own notes? That is what is troubling me,” the defence attorney added.
Mc Nicolls asked her if she was qualified as an attorney, to which she replied in the affirmative. He then invited her to sit at the bar table, but the woman declined. The Chief Magistrate then informed the woman that only the attorneys and members of the media were allowed to take notes of the proceedings. The woman said she never knew of such a rule, but she was quickly reminded that the media was there as a conduit between the court and the public, which has a right to know what was happening. The woman said her notes were not for the Ministry, but for her personal use. Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Carla Brown-Antoine intervened to read Section 41 of the Indictable Offences (Preliminary Inquiry) Act which gives restrictions on publishing evidence at the inquiry stage.

After hearing attorneys and the woman’s personal explanation, the Chief Magistrate ordered that she stop taking notes while seated in the public gallery. The woman returned to her seat and followed proceedings after the luncheon period. Meanwhile, the State’s star witness Brent Miller, spent the third day in the witness stand yesterday. When hearing was adjourned at 3.40 pm, Miller was still being cross-examined by Elder. He will return to the witness stand this morning. Bakr, 62, is charged with conspiring with David “Buffy” Maillard and others at Citrine Drive, Diamond Vale, Diego Martin on June 4 to murder expelled Muslimeen members Salim Rasheed and Zaki Aubiah. Dressed in a short yellowish denim pants, Miller spent another gruelling day in the witness stand.