SANTO DOMINGO: Dominican sports officials must be nervously eyeing the clock. The Pan American Games open tomorrow, and their “to-do” list looks daunting. Hundreds of workers toiled under a hot sun yesterday morning at a training area adjacent to the Olympic Stadium. The incessant hum of machinery drowned out the voices of visiting athletes and coaches. Tractors rolled back and forth, earth was being dug up and garbage cleared. Officials said that only 12 of the 35 international sports federations have approved the various installations. The Guatemalan shooting team said they’ve been unable to train for the last four days because the range isn’t ready; work also has to be done on the volleyball courts; in the city of San Cristobal, the floodlights at the football stadium aren’t working yet.
Elsewhere, workers were rushing to plant flowers, dig paths and erect signs and tents. Perhaps of most concern, the track at the capital’s Olympic Stadium has yet to be inspected or approved by the IAAF, officials said. The president of the Pan American Sporting Organisation, Mexican Mario Vazquez Rana, said on Tuesday night that he expects quick approval, but nevertheless sounded a warning. “They’ve been saying for four days now that the track will be certified and it still hasn’t happened,” he said. “I hope this problem is resolved quickly.”
The head of the organising committee, Jose Joaquin Puello, was confident the approval was imminent. “This track was built following all the regulations and standards of the international federation. There’ll be no problem with that,” he said. Some 5,000 athletes from 42 countries are participating in the games, which will feature 35 different sports. The country’s Sports Minister, Cesar Cedeno, however, was convinced that the games would be a success and emphasised the obstacles faced by his country —- one of the poorest in the Americas —- were inevitable. “We’ll make a good impression with the PASO (Pan American Sports Organisation) and all the participating countries,” he said. “Our country has made a great effort to prove that poor countries can do things well.” The cost of organising the games has fuelled a wave of criticism in the Dominican Republic, with many saying the money would have been better spent on health, education and providing food to the poor. But officials said a successful tournament would bode well for the country.
TRINIDAD and Tobago’s most wanted man, Sheldon “Skelly” Lovell wants to surrender. Newsday was reliably informed that Lovell contacted an attorney just after 11am yesterday and indicated his willingness to surrender. A reward of $100,000 is being asked for his capture. It was increased from $25,000 yesterday. Crime Stoppers chief co-ordinator ASP Wayne Richards said the $100,000 reward is specifically for Lovell. “Well he is deemed the most wanted man in the country and the ‘centrepiece’ in kidnapping and we don’t want him to be out there much longer,” Richards said, commenting on the reward increase. Newsday was able to contact the attorney who confirmed that Lovell, 27, contacted him. The attorney said he had done work for Lovell in the past. “Yes I have spoken to him and as a matter of fact we have been speaking to each other for a long time,” the attorney, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said. The lawyer told Newsday that Lovell contacted him to “sort things out” and that the wanted man would surrender Monday to face charges of kidnapping and falsely imprisoning teenagers Yves Ayoung Chee and Benedict Barrette. He added the decision to have Lovell surrender Monday is to avoid the “long weekend” in jail, which starts tomorrow with Emancipation Day, and also because of personal problems he (the lawyer) has.
The attorney also told Newsday that he had been in contact with the police even before the warrants were issued for Lovell’s arrest. The attorney said he does not know where Lovell is “hiding out” as stated by the police, but ASP Richards said numerous calls were received regarding Lovell’s whereabouts. “We received numerous calls this morning (yesterday) and we are recording all calls and checking all leads,” the senior officer said. Officers of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) said they too were checking information received. Richards did not want to say the exact location the callers reportedly sighted Lovell, saying only: “In various parts of Trinidad and Tobago.” The lawyer said he could not speak for “Gumbo” and “Fruity”, two other men who are also wanted by police for kidnapping the teenagers. The bonafide names of “Gumbo” and “Fruity”, both from Morvant, were unavailable up to late evening and their whereabouts were unknown. The three wanted men are jointly charged with former Special Reserve Police (SRP) officer Reginald Gibson, 34, of Phase 4 Beetham Estate, and Kenny Bonnet, 24, of Eastern Main Road, Laventille.
Gibson, who at one time played football for the police team and Bonnet, a TSTT technician, appeared Tuesday before a Port-of-Spain magistrate and were denied bail. Their matters were adjourned to August 8. All five are charged with two counts each of kidnapping Ayoung Chee and Barrette, and two counts each of falsely imprisoning the youths, both aged 18. Ayoung Chee, of St Clair, and Barrette, of Santa Cruz, were snatched on the morning of July 17 at Marli Street by men in a black car with a siren at the top, after coming from the Club Coconuts. Following the arrest of Bonnet, top ranking police officers speculated yesterday that that there might be a possible link between TSTT employees and kidnappings in the country.
“There must be more connections within the company, as TSTT workers may have been used to make negotiations regarding ransom demands,” senior officers told Newsday. Reached yesterday, Rae Ann Harper-Walters, TSTT’s manager corporate communications, said that any employee caught infringing on customers’ privacy would face disciplinary action. “We do not treat these things very lightly,” Harper-Walters said via telephone. She said the police had not communicated their speculations to the company, and considered the allegations as pure speculation.
RELATIVES of a 27-year-old Rio Claro woman intend to sue the Ministry of Health, following the woman’s death while she was giving birth in the delivery room of the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) on Monday morning. Patricia Montrichard, a mother of three, of Grant Street, Rio Claro, was three weeks overdue when she went to the SFGH to deliver her baby. Although Montrichard died while giving birth, her newborn baby girl was delivered alive and doctors have given the child a 40-60 percent chance at survival. The newborn girl weighed in at nine and a half pounds and is said to be having difficulty breathing. She remains in an incubator at the Maternity Section of the SFGH where doctors and nurses are constantly monitoring her vital signs. According to Montrichard’s mother Priscilla Campbell, 65, Montrichard was in good health and suffered no major complications during the pregnancy. The woman told Newsday she wanted to name her granddaughter Patricia, in memory of her dead daughter. “Everytime I watch that child, I will think of Patricia. It is only natural that I name the baby ‘Pat’,” Campbell said.
Last Thursday, Montrichard went to the Rio Claro Health Centre and was given the relevant documents to go to the SFGH to deliver her child by Caesarian section. According to the grieving woman, her daughter was turned away by nurses at the SFGH and told to return on Sunday. Montrichard returned to the SFGH on Sunday and that night, she telephoned home to say that “everything was fine”. However, unknown to the family, that was the last time they would speak to Montrichard. At 9 pm on Monday, Montrichard’s relatives, who were all expecting good news, were visited by the police who broke the heart-wrenching news that she had died while giving birth to her child. Shocked relatives were told that Montrichard had died around 11.45 am. “I feeling real sad right now….that was my only daughter and to me, it is negligence on the part of the hospital which led to my daughter losing her life,” cried a grieving Campbell.
Relatives told Newsday when they visited the SFGH the following morning, patients on the Maternity Ward told them Montrichard went to the bathroom and fell, hitting her head. It was only then that Montrichard was wheeled into the delivery room. Also speaking to Newsday yesterday was Louis Castillo — the father of Montrichard’s other two children. A shocked Castillo, who said he is the president of the Rio Claro Unemployed Persons Association, said, “Patricia was a strong woman…she never had problems delivering my children. In fact, she delivered them without a murmur.” Montrichard’s relatives told Newsday, they intend to take up the issue of a lawsuit for negligence along with her (Montrichard’s) common-law husband Cipriano Cova — the newborn baby’s father. Castillo told Newsday he would seek the assistance of Ortoire/Mayaro MP and Works and Transport Minister, Franklyn Khan, in the matter. Relatives also claimed when they saw Montrichard’s body lying in the San Fernando Mortuary, her mouth was filled with blood. They told Newsday that the blood was just one issue for which they are seeking answers. An autopsy is expected to be carried out sometime today on Montrichard’s body at the San Fernando Mortuary. When Newsday made checks with the Communications Department of the South-West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA), under whose jurisdiction the SFGH falls, officials claimed to have no knowledge of the incident.
A 31-year-old man is to appear before a Port-of-Spain magistrate today charged with Monday’s murder of Maurice Phillip and the attempted murder of Brenda De Silva. Samuel Roberts, labourer, of no fixed place of abode, was charged yesterday with murder, attempted murder, possession of a .38 pistol with intent to endanger life and possession of ammunition with intent to endanger life. The four charges were laid indictably by Cpl Francis Rivas of the West End CID following consultation with ACP Crime Oswyn Allard and acting Director of Public Prosecutions Carla Brown-Antoine.
Phillip, 30, was reportedly shot four times while De Silva, 29, was shot three times at their Petit Valley home. They were both warded in critical condition at the Port-of Spain General Hospital where Phillip subsequently died. When the man was being led into the Court, an officer attached to the Court exclaimed, “I sympathise with you boy.” Roberts, escorted by Rivas and officers of the Port-of-Spain CID, appeared before a Justice of the Peace last evening who recorded a statement from the man and remanded him in custody until he appears in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Eighth Court.
GOVERNMENT’S initiatives to deal with crime is not comprehensive enough. It needs strengthening or “beefing up.” That is the view of the Catholic Archdiocese which said the crime initiatives only address the symptoms of crime rather than the root causes. The plan involves the introduction of more police officers, a Gun Interdiction Unit and more road blocks. The church is calling for medium- and long-term strategies involving the entire society to deal with the crime wave, as well as a limited gun amnesty and a review of the Crime Stoppers programme. However the church doesn’t feel that a curfew is now an option since it would indicate that “we are giving up the streets to criminals when we need to reclaim the streets.” The reintroduction of corporal punishment in schools is also not an option to stem violence in schools, but rather there is the need for “a whole school approach to discipline.” At a press conference yesterday at the Catholic Communications Studios, Archbishop’s House, Port-of-Spain, a four-page statement which focused on three elements — the spiritual, educational and social justice issues — to deal with crime was delivered by Leela Ramdeen, the chairperson for the Catholic Commission for Social Justice.
Archbishop Edward Gilbert said the Archdiocese felt the fundamental issue in crime was a spiritual and value problem, which could not merely be addressed by prayers. He said the Church, on a spiritual level, had assigned on a full-time basis a priest and deacon to the Laventille/Morvant area in an effort to increase the visibility of the Church. Additionally, 50 members of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force (TTDF) are working out of the Laventille RC School for the vacation period to help members of the community feel safer. Three priests have also been assigned as chaplains to work with the TTDF based on the request by the TTDF. He said a closer relationship had to be developed between the Church and the protective services. The Archbishop also announced that a day of prayer was planned by the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) for September. Asked if he felt Government was doing enough to fight crime, Gilbert said they were making a valiant effort but stressed that the real culprit of crime was the “disintegration of values”. He however said that the upsurge in crime was “going beyond the minimum that the police force is designed to deal with.” He noted that when he was recently appointed Archbishop, there were dozens of people liming around the Savannah between 8.30 and 10 pm, but now by 8.30 pm, the place is deserted. He advised that Government needed to stop “going from the top down” to deal with crime, but to involve the grass roots people because that was where the “decay was evident.”
As for a message to criminals, the Archbishop said “bad guys don’t pray” and therefore he supported a structured approach to dealing with crime where prayers are matched with social action and planning. He said from his interaction with the people of Laventille/Morvant, the community was afraid with a fragmented community and disordered lives. Ramdeen in her statement said the Church was deeply concerned about the escalating crime situation and outlined several suggestions. They included “anti-crime programmes at national, community and institutional levels, a gun amnesty for a limited period, addressing issues of poverty, employment, housing, health and education, reviewing of the Crime Stoppers initiative and raising the level of confidence of the public in the Police Service.” Ramdeen said there needed to be an increased response to reports of crime and a police service “which demonstrates integrity, professionalism, fairness and compassion.” She noted that there was indiscipline which needed to be restored in many areas of life and identified several areas which needed urgent attention in reducing crime: family life needed rebuilding, the school system needed reviewing, more “neighbourly society” and a greater role by the media.
A MERE 48 hours after he was sworn in as the new Mayor of San Fernando, Ian Atherley appeared before a San Fernando magistrate yesterday as the case against him, in which he is charged with ballot-box tampering, continued. Atherley’s attorney Ian Seukeran, a relative of San Fernando (West) MP Diane Seukeran (whose campaign manager for the last General Elections was Atherley), blasted the prosecution for seeking another adjournment. Seukeran complained to Senior Magistrate Mark Wellington, who presided over the First Court, that Atherley could not afford to be “wasting time” given his busy schedule and the “tremendous responsibility” he has in his new capacity as San Fernando Mayor. “San Fernando people cannot have their Mayor coming here (to the courts) time and time again and wasting time. He has certain responsibilities,” Seukeran told the court. But Magistrate Wellington obliged the prosecution’s adjournment request and postponed the case to August 13.
Atherley’s lead attorney, Theodore Guerra SC, said he hoped to bring an end to the case on the next occasion. Yesterday, the public sitting gallery of the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court was packed to capacity for the hearing of the Mayor’s case. A dapper Atherley, dressed in a light grey suit, shook hands and greeted numerous supporters, attorneys and policemen who congratulated him on attaining the Mayoral seat as he made his way into the First Court. Atherley was sworn-in on Monday morning as the Mayor of San Fernando. Yesterday, the court heard evidence from two State witnesses — Caribbean Com-munications Network (CCN) employees’ Michael Ramsingh and Natalie Sequea. The video footage of a TV6 news broadcast was again showed in court as was the case during the last hearing of the matter on July 17.
A 25-year-old security guard was yesterday committed to stand trial for the murder of 11-month-old Tyrese Brown, who died last December 4. Senior Magistrate Indra Ramoo-Haynes, sitting at the Tunapuna Magistrate’s Court, committed Hakim Sergeant to stand trial after she found that the State had made out a prima facie case against him. The former Imjin guard, of Petit Valley, was arrested on December 9 by officers of the St Joseph Criminal Investi-gations Department (CID) after which Sgt Don Lezama charged him with the toddler’s murder. Sergeant first appeared in court on December 13. The preliminary inquiry began on April 4, during which time, 10 prosecution witnesses, including pathologist Dr Hughvon des Vignes gave evidence.
State attorney Shoba Jamorna and police prosecutor Sgt Pasqual prosecuted, while Senior Counsel Rangee Dolsingh represented the accused man. Baby Tyrese’s mother, Alicia Brown, of East Street, St Joseph, went to the St Joseph’s Boys’ RC School on the night of November 28, reportedly to meet a man, after which the toddler was taken for a walk. About one hour later Tyrese was brought back, and subsequently developed breathing problems and also had what appeared to be bruises on his chest, head and back. The child was warded at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Mount Hope Medical Sciences Complex but later died on December 4. A post mortem performed by des Vignes revealed that the toddler died from extensive fractures of the skull. Sergeant was later charged following directions by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Geoffrey Henderson.
Martin Daly SC, legal representative for the Environmental Management Authority (EMA), argued at the Court of Appeal yesterday that there were absolutely no grounds for the Court to interfere with the discretion of the trial judge in denying an application made by Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) for judicial review. Daly was referring to the decision made by High Court Justice Nolan Bereaux in August 2002 to dismiss an application for judicial review of the decision of the EMA to grant a Certificate of Environmental Clearance to bpTT to construct a natural gas pipeline at Guayaguayare. Daly appeared before Justices Lionel Jones, Rolston Nelson and Anthony Lucky. Former Attorney General Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, who is representing FFOS, contended that Bereaux erred in law and that it was unreasonable for the trial judge to require an applicant to be prepared for judicial review while the preliminary process was taking place. He also argued that Bereaux considered the financial hardships bpTT would undergo if the application was granted but not those of other parties involved.
Daly argued that the trial judge did not ignore public interest in his decision and was not wrong in devoting as much attention as he did to the financial implications on bpTT if the FFOS application was granted. In response to the allegation by Maharaj that the judge did not deal with the alleged issue of illegality in accordance with the law, Daly argued that no prima facie finding of illegality on behalf of the EMA was made by the judge. Daly, who is assisted by attorney Maxine Williams, is expected to continue arguments today along with bpTT representatives Russell Martineau SC and Deborah Peake.
A shortage of Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ has resulted in the dissatisfaction of attorneys, the public and prisoners alike. For the past three days, police officers attached to the Court have had to deal with rowdy friends and relatives of prisoners who are either not being granted bail, having their matters adjourned or not having their matters heard at all due to the fact that three of the customary six magistrates have been absent for various reasons. The situation resulted in an uproar among prisoners who waited for almost an hour in the holding bay before a Justice of the Peace was called upon to adjourn the matters. During the chaos one prisoner exclaimed, “This is a violation of my rights. I is a human!” Several attorneys were also affected as they told Newsday that they were all prepared to have their matters dealt with but could not proceed.
OPPOSITION LEADER Basdeo Panday was silent yesterday about Monday’s NACTA exit poll which described him as being the biggest asset to the People’s National Movement’s (PNM). However party insiders said given Panday’s track record of outright disregard for the findings of NACTA’s polls, the United National Con-gress (UNC) Leader will dismiss Monday’s poll outright and say that it will not influence his timetable for remaining at the helm of the party, or in active politics. Panday has repeatedly expressed his desire to resign as UNC leader but has insisted that he will not abandon the party in mid-stream and leave it vulnerable to political predators. When Newsday contacted UNC headquarters at Rienzi Complex in Couva, party officials said they were unaware of Panday’s daily schedule and that schedule was determined by staff at the Leader of the Oppo-sition’s office in Port-of-Spain.
Calls to that office revealed that Panday would not be in office for the day and several reporters had been calling repeatedly trying to get a comment from the UNC leader about Monday’s poll. However UNC sources claimed while Panday may be disturbed about the poll’s contents, he will never admit to being the Opposition’s “biggest liability” or the PNM’s “biggest asset” to remaining in government. The sources said Panday remains firmly entrenched as UNC leader and only he will decide when it is time to leave. The poll said allegations of corruption continue to haunt the UNC and the Opposition’s strategy of non-cooperation with the Govern-ment was not bearing fruit. Monday’s poll reinforced the findings of previous NACTA polls which said Panday and other UNC parliamentarians who are perceived to be corrupt must leave the party if the UNC is to have a fighting chance to regain the government. When contacted yesterday, UNC chairman Wade Mark said he had not studied the poll in detail and preferred not to comment until he did. Former government minister Trevor Sudama predicted that Monday’s poll, just like St Joseph MP Gerald Yetming’s public challenge last week for Panday to resign, will not bother the UNC leader in any way. Similar to Yetming’s challenge (in an exclusive Newsday story), Opposition MPs have again expressed differing views on the poll but none have supported its findings.
