AFTER months of confusion over the issue of legal representation for murder-accused Sean Parris, the trial may soon get underway after the State appointed a defence attorney, in whom Parris says he is pleased. Parris, a maximum security prisoner at Remand Yard, received the news yesterday when he was brought down to the San Fernando High Court before Justice Herbert Volney. When Parris’ case was called, the prisoner said, with a note of dejection in his voice, that his previous State-appointed lawyer had not turned up. But Justice Volney was able to raise Parris’ spirits. “Good news,” Justice Volney declared, “the legal authority has appointed Keith Scotland, instructed by Larry Williams, to represent you, I am advised. This means that you have Port-of-Spain lawyers which is what you wanted. Are you pleased?”
Parris said he was and further added that he was ready to commence his trial. Justice Volney told the prisoner that the State was also ready to begin, but he (Parris) must meet and speak with his (Parris’) attorneys. Since April 1, Parris’ case has been set for trial but was unable to begin due to uncertainty as to which legal aid lawyer was appointed to the case. Parris had accused the Legal Aid department of “playing games” with his case. Parris is charged with the shooting murder of Dr Chandra Narayansingh on June 29, 1994.
Before Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls entered the court yesterday to deal with a kidnapping and murder hearing, accused Sheldon “Skelly” Lovell threatened policemen. Lovell made the threat after police had ordered his mother, Dianne Lovell, to leave the courtroom following her refusal to desist from talking to her son, who was sitting in the court’s holding cell. “Skelly” told the lawmen: “All yuh taking advantage of people. She ain’t do anything for all yuh to put her out. I not afraid of all yuh eh.” Sheldon “Skelly” Lovell along with two others appeared in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court yesterday charged with the kidnapping and murder of Curepe businessman Dennis Persad-Jodhan.
Lovell, 31, was jointly charged along with Shawn “Gumbo” Vincent, 29 and Brent “Small Brent” Danglade for kidnapping and murdering Jodhan. The trio was also charged together with Jason Joseph, for falsely imprisoning Jodhan. Jodhan, 30, was kidnapped from his home at Evans Street, Curepe, opposite his father’s business place, Dumplin’s Mini Mart. A ransom of $80,000 was demanded for his safe return. However, five days later his body was discovered on a road leading to an agricultural estate off the Churchill Roosevelt Highway in Aranjuez. “Skelly” was also charged with Rondelle Roberts, who was later granted bail in the sum of $100,000, for kidnapping Ronald John, the brother of Former UNC Minister, Carlos John. John, psychologist, was abducted from his Petra Street home in Woodbrook on March 26, 2003. He was rescued by police officers at a house on Upper Fairley Street, Tunapuna. This kidnapping was carried out approximately five months after his first kidnapping on October 2, 2002. Lovell and three others were clad in white t-shirts and jeans while Rondelle Roberts was dressed in a red shirt and brown pants.
He was urged to be quiet. It was then that Mc Nicolls walked into the court. Attorney for Lovell and Vincent, Patrick Godson-Phillips, was not in Court and attorney Ian Brooks held for him. Brooks stated that an application had been made in the Tunapuna Magistrates’ Court for the return of cell phones belonging to the two accused, but nothing had been done about it. “There is a complete laissez-faire attitude in dealing with the matter. “Two cell phones were taken from the two men on the day that they were arrested. I would like the cell phones to be returned to them.” The State prosecutor indicated that Brooks’ request could not be granted at the time because the court had no “say” in the whereabouts of the phones. She also stated that if Brooks wanted the phones to be returned to the accused he would have to contact the arresting officers, one of whom was on vacation. The matter was then adjourned to September 26.
A DRUG-BUST by police, who swooped down via helicopter on a 53-year-old man in the Tableland forest, is the State’s main evidence in a marijuana trafficking trial being heard in the San Fernando Second High Court. State attorney Narissa Ramsundar is leading the State’s case against Koablal Balram, of Tableland. Balram, represented by attorneys Prakash Ramadhar and Brian Dabideen, went on trial yesterday before Justice Rajendra Narine, charged with having 2.2 kilogrammes of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking in his possession. According to Ramsundar, on October 13, 1998, members of the Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit, including Cpl Anthony Warrick and PC Baptiste, went to Tableland forest via helicopter and saw Balram in the bushes with a large plastic bag. As the helicopter flew Balram allegedly attempted to run away while dragging the bag behind him.
The Northwest Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) and Eric Thompson were named as defendants in a medical negligence law suit brought by a mother of three. Callistra Naidoo has sued the NWRHA claiming damages and compensation due to negligence which allegedly resulted in the death of her husband, Ramnanand Naidoo. The writ was filed by attorney Victor Primus instructing attorney Alfred Pierre, at the Registry of the Port-of-Spain High Court.
Ramnanand died at the intensive care unit of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex on July 17, 2002, after he had an operation to drain a tooth abscess. According to the statement of claim, on April 29, 2002, Ramnanand had gone to the complex as a paying patient for medical and surgical treatment to have a tooth abscess drained under general anaesthesia. Ramnanand, it is being alleged, immediately developed pulmonary infection, deep vein thrombosis and later pulmonary infraction thromboembolism of which he died on May 17, 2002.
Prime Minister Patrick Manning promised to give the TEXTEL Pension Plan Fund issue immediate attention when a petition, signed by more than half the 500-plus members for Government’s assistance in solving a dispute between TEXTEL pensioners and TSTT, was handed over to him at Whitehall, yesterday. Advisor to the Prime Minister Herbert Atwell who received the petition on behalf of Manning said that the PM would “look at it” at his earliest convenience, Communication Workers’ Union Secretary General, Lyle Townsend told Newsday. The signatories are former members of the TEXTEL Employees Pension Fund Plan and current employees of TSTT. They are requesting Government intervention in resolving a “long outstanding issue” concerning the benefits due to the Plan’s members. The hand over of the petition followed a staged protest by “aggrieved” pensioners outside Whitehall, who, according to the petition have been “forced” to take such action.
“We believe that it is necessary at this time for us to demand the winding up of the Plan in accordance with Section 34.2 of the rules, that is equitable distribution of the assets solely to the former members,” the petition said. According to Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) Secretary General Lyle Townsend who headed the demonstration, it is necessary for the Government to become involved since, “the Government represent the people.” He told Newsday: “We are going to the limit. Companies who run pension plans in this country have been pilfering from the workers. Trustees are supposed to be securing the interest of the workers, but it seems to be a free-for-all and plunder. “We think it is time the Government step in because it involves a State enterprise,” said Townsend. He said the issue is a national one and that the CWU and TEXTEL pensioners were acting on behalf of “all people of the country who contribute to a pension plan.”
The TEXTEL Pension Plan was absorbed by TSTT when the Trinidad and Tobago External Telecommunications Company Limited (TEXTEL) became defunct. TEXTEL pensioners are demanding that the surplus of $300M owing them be distributed to its beneficiaries. “TSTT feels they should keep the surplus but we disagree. They are going contrary to the rules of the plan and we consider this to be illegal. We took it to the High Court and the Court of Appeal. The whole thing was a contrivance to rob people of their just due,” lamented former personnel manager of TEXTEL, Eugene Lopez.
THE OPPOSITION United National Congress (UNC) yesterday said Attorney General Glenda Morean must take action to recover the $28 million which has allegedly been stolen from the Piarco Airport Development Project. While addressing a breakfast seminar hosted by the Couva/Point Lisas Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday, Morean said her information was that $28 million was corruptly stolen from the Project and laundered in the local and international financial system. The AG also spoke about Government’s plans to create a Financial Intelligence Unit.
UNC Chairman Wade Mark yesterday told Newsday that if the AG has “credible evidence,” then she must ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice. However Mark expressed concern that by her utterances, Morean could be prejudicing any legal proceedings which may arise. He reiterated the UNC’s objections about the report on the Piarco Airport Inquiry being referred to a team headed by the Canadian forensic investigator Bob Lindquist instead of Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Geoffrey Henderson. Mark described Lindquist as the Government’s “hired mercenary.” During debate in the Senate on Tuesday, AG Morean told Mark that under Section 90 (3) of the Constitution the DPP has no investigative powers.
BENEDICT INNIS went to visit his 70-year-old grandmother Ursula, and discovered her decapitated body in her bathroom. Not far away, underneath an outdoor water tank, the decomposing body of the old woman’s common-law husband, Selwyn Grant, 65, was also found. On trial for the elderly couple’s murders are their neighbours, Mookesh Chandardath, 35, and Zanna Andrews, 26. Chandardath and Andrews, are before Justice Herbert Volney in the San Fernando First Assizes. The accused are charged with committing the murders on a date unknown between July 31 and September 17, 1999, at the elderly couple’s home in Penal.
Acting Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions (South) Joan Honore-Paul is leading the State’s evidence before Justice Volney and a jury of six women and six men, with two alternates. Honore-Paul said the elderly couple lived at Allen Drive, Penal and also owned the next-door property in which Chandardath lived. Sometime after the murders, Chandardath brought his new bride Maria Charles and mother-in-law to live in the house, but they were plagued by, “a bad smell.” Paul said: “From the time they smelt this pungent, bad smell and in the six weeks they lived there, they would often throw disinfectant outside.” According to the State’s evidence, in early August, Roger Thompson, a friend of Chandardath, went to assist him in moving furniture items from the pensioners’ house to his home next-door. Paul told the court that Thompson found Innis’ decapitated body in the bathtub and asked Chandardath: “You trying to get me in trouble or what?”
“We want a school, right now,” shouted angry parents and children of Palo Seco Government Primary School yesterday in a lunch-time protest across the road from Whitehall, where Cabinet held its weekly meeting. The demonstration was the latest in a series of protests which began last year when they saw that their school was not included among those to be rebuilt by the Education Ministry. “The school breaking down, it shifting, woodlice eating away the board,” said Bernard Joseph a Standard Five student. Denise Joseph, Secretary of the PTA, said parents have been complaining for the past ten years about the dilapidated condition of the school and the dangers posed to students but the authorities only responded with renovation work.
Parents are questioning the amount of money spent since they have seen little change at the school, which is 63 years old. “They are putting iron beams on rotten rafters, and the beams are falling,” a parent said. He said $59,000 was spent on renovations during the school vacation and last year $300,000 was spent. Termite infestation is still a major problem. A worker fell through a floor earlier this year, and the library cannot be used. This caused the parent to remark that “termites going to school to read books.” Most recently, burglar proofing which was not secured fell and hit a student on his head. “The iron rotting, they doing things too hurry,” declared another parent. The present school structure is too small for the 430 children who attend classes there. Consequently, classes are held outside and the students are “constantly distracted by passing traffic.” The absence of a sidewalk outside the school is another cause for concern. A five-year-old second year student was knocked down while walking from school with her older sister. The parents criticised the representation they are receiving from their Member of Parliament Hedwidge Bereaux and Councillor Philip Salazar, saying they were only giving promises.
Education Minister Hazel Manning, who was leaving Whitehall, saw the protest and came over to speak with the parents. She assured them that their school is among those to be rebuilt and blamed the media for the omission of the school on the list publicised. Manning said the Principal of the school was informed and the consultants would contact her. She said designs for a new structure will soon start. She told the parents that the Ministry is conducting a survey to determine what needs to be done because 50 percent of the 488 primary schools in TT are in “very bad” condition. Manning said she had a meeting to attend but invited the parents to go to the Ministry and she would speak to them.
West Indian Tobacco Company Limited (WITCO) has stopped advertising its brands on television, radio and in the print media as part of its implementation the marketing standards in TT. Launched in September 2001, the international marketing standards set down detailed guidance on all aspects of tobacco marketing from print, billboards and electronic media to promotional events, packaging and sponsorship. One important aspect of the standards relates to advertising of tobacco products.
British American Tobacco (BAT), Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco, united by the shared belief that the nature of the product they sell requires that they market it responsibly. This was the first time that a formal comprehensive protocol of this kind has been agreed. The IMS lays down the minimum rules to be followed across the full range of tobacco marketing activity, including restrictions on print and broadcast advertising, sponsorship and packaging of tobacco products. WITCO, as a subsidiary of BAT, is a signatory to the IMS. In all instances, this protocol exceeds TT’s regulatory requirements. In its 2002 annual general report WITCO said: “In implementing the IMS in TT, we believe that we are taking concrete positive steps towards addressing genuine public concern about the marketing of tobacco products.”
WITCO said by adopting these standards, they may in some instances be placed at a competitive disadvantage if competitor companies do not adopt the standards. “However, we feel that we have a duty to ensure that we promote and distribute our tobacco products in a responsible manner.” In general, the standards are intended to cover all actions and communications by or on behalf of the company to consumers who have the aim of encouraging them to select one brand of tobacco products over another. WITCO said another significant aspect of the standards relates to health warning. In this regard, the standards require that, with certain exceptions, advertisements shall contain a clearly visible health warning which covers 15 percent of the branded area.
Ian Ramdeen, trading as Ian Ramdeen Transport Contractors and Heavy Equipment of Diego Martin, has been sued by newspaper editor Suzanne Mills for trespass and nuisance to her property at the corner of St Lucien Road and Sunset Gardens, Diego Martin. The writ was filed in the Sub-Registry of the San Fernando High Court on September 5, by attorney Garnet Mungalsingh and Co, and seeks an injunction against Ramdeen from entering, with his trucks and heavy machines, and /or remaining upon Sunset Gardens which is a private road. Mills is also claiming damages. The writ arises from a hillside development on St Lucien Road where large sections of the hillside have been cut down for a private housing development which is causing a nuisance to residents.
