In a media release issued yesterday, the SSFL stated, “two matters (that) were raised by two schools, which after review by both the Credential and Disciplinary Committees resulted in the reversal of the final results.” Regarding the issue with Ramcharan, “the Committees, including the Appeals, upheld the decision that Abdus only having three subjects in Lower Six (contrary to League Rules) is not eligible to represent his school as a player in the League.” As a result, the October 6 encounter between East Mucurapo and St Benedict’s was reversed from 2-1 in East Mucurapo’s favour with St Benedict’s being handed the win 3-0.

Four subsequent matches involving East Mucurapo saw the scores switched to 3-0 in their opponents’ favour – October 8 against Fatima, October 12 against QRC, October 15 against Trinity and October 26 against Fyzabad.

Cupid’s status as a student, having wrote the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam in 2008, was raised by Naparima College.

“Both the Credential and Disciplinary Committees ruled that Kori is not eligible to represent his school as a player in the League because he could have been in the system for more than eight years.” As a consequence, the scores in four matches involving Presentation San Fernando were reversed to 3-0 in their opponents’ favour – September 10 against Fatima, September 21 against East Mucurapo, September 24 against QRC and September 28 against Naparima.

The ruling by the SSFL Credential and Disciplinary Committees sees reigning Intercol champions San Juan North slip into the relegation zone despite not having done anything illegally as teams below them benefited from 3-0 default wins to leapfrog them in the standings.

Revised SSFL Standings
Teams…………………………………………………Points
Shiva Boys…………………………………………………37
Naparima……………………………………………………32
St Anthony’s………………………………………………..28
Presentation San Fernando ������������������������������23
Fyzabad……………………………………………………..23
Signal Hill…………………………………………………..20
St Augustine……………………………………………….20
Trinity College ����������������������������������������������������20
St Mary’s…………………………………………………….20
QRC………………………………………………………….15
Fatima……………………………………………………….15
St Benedict’s……………………………………………….15
San Juan North �������������������������������������������������11
Pleasantville……………………………………………….10
East Mucurapo ����������������������������������������������������7

The JLSC statement detailed Ayers-Caesar’s appointment process and even more startling, information which they became aware of when she resigned on April 27, 15 days after her was appointed by President Anthony Carmona. The JLSC described as unfortunate but warranted, the concerns raised on Ayers-Caesar’s appointment as a judge and her eventual resignation.

It was also revealed that two days before her swearing in on April 12, Ayers-Caesar provided Archie with a written list of cases she left behind.

She detailed, “three short trial matters” and, “a few paper committals” which could be restarted by another magistrate. The former chief magistrate told her boss in a telephone conversation that same day, that she had no other outstanding matters in the St George West, Couva or any of the other magisterial districts.

Following a sustained chorus of protest from prisoners and attorneys, Ag Chief Magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle was asked to conduct an audit to ascertain the true state of affairs. It turned out the list of Ayers-Caesar’s outstanding matters was much larger than the CJ was led to believe and many were “quite substantial matters in which several witnesses had already been cross-examined.” “The list of the number of trials had risen from 3 to 10 and the total number of matters was now in excess of fifty (50),” the JLSC statement said. “…Subsequent to the 28th of April 2017, it has come to the attention of the Chief Justice and the JLSC that Mrs Ayers-Caesar on March 22nd, 2017 went to the Couva Magistrates’ Court and dismissed sixteen outstanding cases arising out of at least seven unconnected incidents. Without knowing all the details of the matters the JLSC notes the unusual nature of this action,” the JLSC said.

Ayers-Caesar was notified of her selection as a judge on March 15.

“The JLSC was unanimously of the view that the discrepancy between the two lists was large enough to call into question one of the bases upon which Mrs Ayers-Caesar had been selected — her case management ability — and the JLSC recognised that, if the second list represented the true state of affairs, it could seriously erode public confidence in the administration of justice; And, by extension, the whole selection process as it was apparent from comments in the public domain that no distinction was being drawn in the minds of many observers between the selection process and Mrs Ayers-Caesar’s management of her transition to the High Court Bench,” the statement said.

The JLSC also revealed that disciplinary action against Ayers-Caesar was considered at an emergency meeting on April 27, but members agreed that she should return to the magistracy to complete matters she left unfinished. However, the JLSC revealed that no promises were made to Ayers-Caesar that if she finished her part-heard matters, she would be returned to the High Court. “In the meantime, Mrs Ayers-Caesar will not be presiding on the magisterial bench while the JLSC gives further consideration to the several issues raised,” the statement said. Archie and the JLSC members further said it welcomed ‘constructive suggestions from interested parties for the efficient disposition of the part-heard matters that remain outstanding.” .

In its statement the JLSC said where a prospective appointee was already in the employ of the Judiciary, the Chief Justice would enquire from them if they were not leaving behind a body of unfinished work that would negatively impact the Judiciary.

The statement pointed out that Ayers-Caesar and former magistrate Avason Quinlan-Williams, who was also appointed as a judge on the same day, were judicial officers in the magistracy and two other candidates who ranked ahead of the former chief magistrate in the selection process requested and was given more time to complete their outstanding cases. They are yet to be sworn in.

The JLSC said it would have been impractical for them to ‘delve into the case files’ of a successful applicant from the magistracy.

“Reasonable ‘due diligence’ is satisfied by seeking an assurance that the appointee has done all that is required with respect to his/her professional obligations to put themselves in readiness to assume duty. In the past, the JLSC has regarded the word of a judicial officer as sufficient,” the statement said.

Further revealing that there was no electronic case management information system in the magistracy and that records were kept manually, the JLSC said the only way to determine the state of any magistrate’s list was to physically examine the case sheets for each district.

“It is the professional responsibility of every judicial officer irrespective of the nature of the record keeping system, to keep track of his/her case-load. If called upon to give account, a magistrate may be assisted by calling around to the Clerks of the Peace in each district to assist in compiling a list. However, no list produced by a Clerk is regarded as definitive unless it is vetted and signed off by the relevant judicial officer. This applies equally to the Chief Magistrate,” the statement said.
(See Page 7A)

TIME LINE OF EVENTS
April 2016: Notices of vacancies on the High Court Bench advertised.
January-February 2017: Short-listed candidates are invited to participate in assessment process.
March 15: Successful candidates informed of their selection.
April 7: Opposition Senator Gerald Ramdeen calls on CJ Archie and the JLSC to disclose criteria used for appointment of judges.
April 9: Archie attempts to reach Ayers-Caesar by phone April 10: Ayers-Caesar details only three short trials and a few paper committals she left behind.
April 12: Ayers-Caesar, Kevin Ramcharan and Avason Quinlan-Williams take the oath as judges from President Anthony Carmona.
April 12: CJ Archie defends the process used by the JLSC for selection and appointment of judges.
April 19: Judiciary in statement, says Ayers-Caesar’s promotion would not negatively affect the lower court.
April 23: Law Association expresses concern about Ayers-Caesar’s appointment.
April 24: Madame Justice Ayers-Caesar makes her debut in the San Fernando Third Criminal Court.
April 25: Several inmates, mostly murder accused, riot in court as their cases left in abeyance on Ayers-Caesar’s elevation.
April 27: Ayers-Caesar resigns as a judge. She apologises for the effect of her actions on the prisoners.
April 27: CJ Archie says Ayers-Caesar will be restored to the Magistracy.
May 4: Lawyers asked to sign petition expressing loss of confidence in CJ Archie and the JLSC.
May 5: 11 Senior Counsel hold historic meeting expressing alarm at Ayers-Caesar’s judicial appointment.
May 5: Law association agrees to hold special general meeting to discuss a resolution calling on CJ Archie and the JLSC to resign.
May 8: Former AG Anand Ramlogan initiates legal action against the JLSC over the legality of two members, retired judges Roger Hamel- Smith and Humphrey Stollmeyer.
May 9: CJ Archie and JLSC break their silence on the Ayers-Caesar imbroglio.

“They must have discussions on the issue,” Khan said at a media conference at his law chambers on Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain yesterday. “The judiciary must not be brought into further disrepute,” Khan stressed. Ayers-Caesar, appointed a judge by Carmona on April 12, resigned 15 days later after prisoners near-rioted in the court she presided over as chief magistrate.

Last Friday, 11 prominent senior counsel – of which Khan was one – indicated it would be imprudent and unwise for Ayers-Caesar to resume her duties at the lower court.

Khan said it was imperative that an inquiry into what transpired take place, adding if there is evidence of misbehaviour in public office, the President must ask the CJ to stand down, while a tribunal is appointed to investigate.

“Given the crisis the Judiciary is in, it is crucial that he (Carmona) speaks out now,” Khan said.

He added that the facts had to come out on whether the JLSC, chaired by the CJ, did not engage in due diligence by enquiring of Ayers-Caesar the number of partheard matters she had on her docket or whether she misrepresented that number as claimed by Archie in his statement following her resignation as a judge.

“The question must be asked, ‘did she disclose the number of part-heard matters and why wasn’t she given time to finish them? What was the rush (to appoint),” Khan asked. He pointed to Constitutional provisions for the removal of a Chief Justice and said Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has a crucial part to play in the imbroglio, since it is for him and his Cabinet to recommend to the President that a Tribunal be appointed.

“Avoid a vote of no confidence.

Avoid questions being asked of you,” he said, in reference to a petition to be debated next month by the Law Association which is calling for Archie and the JLSC to resign. Khan has also written the President raising questions on the constitutionality of the JLSC which sits with only four members and not five as prescribed by Section 110 of the Constitution.

He said this is also a grave issue as it could result in a further crisis since all appointments made by the JLSC could be illegal, null and void.

“The ball is in the President’s court,” he said.

The unidentified man’s body was removed to the Forensic Science Centre in St James where once a positive ID is made, an autopsy will be carried out. Police said the man was shot several times. Up to press time, the murder toll stood at 177

Speaking at the Hospice’s tea party on Sunday at the Hyatt Regency, Carmona said, “there is a particular medication that we, as part of the Vitas House Hospice family, have requested permission from the designated authorities to ease the physical plight of the terminally ill at Vitas House, and for years nothing is forthcoming.” The drug, she said, has already been approved by the United States Food and Drug Agency (FDA) for many years.

The harsh truth, she said, “is that approval for the use of new drugs is not being addressed with the required speed and sense of urgency.” Many in the region who require drugs like oxycodone, opioid analgesics, she said, cannot source them and sometimes die painful deaths.

Noting that FDA approved drugs for the terminally ill and other patients take a long time to be approved, Carmona said, “We are often burdened by onerous regulations that are systemic and systematic with indifference, institutional apathy and not enough forward thinking and a perceived lack of care.” The FDA represents international benchmark standards for the operationalisation and use of new drugs, she said and suggested that Trinidad and Tobago and other Caribbean nations which lack funds, infrastructure and human resources, approve drugs for the terminally ill and other patients based on FDA standards.

“The average waiting time for approval, I have been informed by stakeholders,” she said, “is over two years.” Sometimes by that time, she said, the life span of samples have expired and new ones must be resubmitted. The delay is not just about time management or marketing strategies or even skewed bureaucracy, she said, but about people’s lives, the terminally ill, family members and friends.

“Having spoken to other stakeholders,” she said, “the non-approval of new drugs is further burdened by an environment that makes no comprehensive, informed provision for the execution of clinical trials involving new and experimental drugs.” Currently boxes of drugs and dossiers are waiting to be approved at the food and drugs division, she said.

The food and drugs division, like others in the region, she said, “is simply overwhelmed through lack of resources, weak infrastructure and insufficient personnel, to fully and competently carry out its mandate.” She suggested that in the same way the Bahamas enacted legislation to import pharmaceuticals following prescribed international standards set by international pharmacopeia like the US and the the Europeans, that TT adopt similar legislation.

This not only saves time, but also money, she said, as the authorities would save on paying experts to approve the many dossiers submitted to them.

In responding to a question in the Senate yesterday, Dillon said out of this figure, “153 were deemed as homicides.” The minister explained that deaths are classified as natural, unnatural or undetermined.

He said unnatural causes of death include murder and suicides.

He added that for this period, 18 autopsies were defined as undetermined.

Dillon said 268 autopsies were conducted at the Forensic Science Centre in Port-of-Spain while ten were done in Scarborough.

Macron enters the history books as the youngest leader of France since Napolean Bonaparte. He joins the ranks of youthful politicians such as Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Belgium’s Prime Minister Charles Michel. Many are hoping Sunday’s victory is the start of a reignited movement in favour of a more liberal world. Days after his victory, Moon Jae-in, a left-leaning liberal, won South Korea’s presidential election. But it is fanciful to believe that the ugliness which has reared its head in global politics – as represented by the rise of Donald Trump and Brexit – will simply disappear with these electoral victories.

For instance in France, Macron will not be able to ignore the fact that almost 34 per cent of the voters chose Marine Le Pen, a leader whose party and policies are openly anti-European, anti-immigrant, and racist. Far from going quietly into the gentle night, Le Pen has pledged a “profound transformation” of her party and could still remain a force to contend with come 2022.

While Macron’s victory was the most decisive since Jacques Chirac’s in 2002, it cannot be forgotten that about 25 per cent of French voters stayed away. Macron’s youth belies the fact that he is far from a newcomer to politics. He served in the administration of Francois Hollande. Though he may like to describe himself as such, he is also hardly an outsider, being a graduate of the ?cole Nationale d’Administration and a Rothschild alumnus.

His youth may afford him certain advantages, prime among them an ability to understand the world in today’s terms. His background in finance (he was once dubbed “the Mozart of finance”) may also give him a unique perspective when it comes to tackling France’s unemployment rate and its stagnant economic growth. Still, many question whether he will be able to succeed in economic rejuvenation where many a French president has failed.

But history will perhaps view the French election result as less of a referendum on Monsieur Macron’s qualities and more of an instance of tactical voting given the threat presented by Le Pen. Le Pen was openly cosy with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and on the eve of the election Macron had to fend off a massive email leak of party communications which has been linked to murky Russian cyber groups which were also fingered in the hack of a US political party last year.

The difference this time around is that Macron’s team appeared ready for the intervention, planting fake emails in anticipation of such a tactic. Notably, the French media also declined to carry much of the materials given the close proximity to the blackout period in which, under French law, no campaigning is allowed. Macron’s victory was also certainly aided by the fact that France uses a run-off system in voting in its leaders. This system allows citizens to make a more precise intervention when the time comes to say who they would like to government them, contrasting sharply with the first-past-the-post system of the UK and this country.

Macron’s victory makes things harder for the UK and, perhaps, his British counterpart Theresa May who is seeking a mandate to implement “Brexit means Brexit.” Will she face a tide of tactical voting? If she is victorious, as the polls currently suggest she will be, her negotiations with the European Union may be tougher. For now we wish Macron best of luck. Or as the French would say, bonne chance!

Residents of Lower Railway Road heard gunshots at about 1 am yesterday.

When they checked, they found Cedeno bleeding on the road.

He was taken to the Arima Health Centre and then to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope where he later died. Police said Ceden was shot in the head and chest.

Relatives yesterday told Newsday that Cedeno was a friendly, outgoing, hard-working person who was always well-dressed, until he fell into drug use.

“He was a real good dresser,” said Cedeno’s sister at the Forensic Science Centre in St James yesterday, “He always used to look good. People around him used to get jealous when they saw him dress.” Relatives said Cedeno worked as a warehouse attendant in San Juan.

When he lost his job he wandered the streets. “He used to pick fruits and sell them just to get money to buy his drugs,” said the sister. “After our mother died last year he got off the drugs and was staying with my niece. He was starting to get better.

It was like seeing him the way he was before. But five months later he went back on drugs and went back to the streets”

Chicki Portello, Anton Cambridge, Kareem Gomez, Levi Joseph, Anthony Charles and Israel “Arnold” Lara were subdued when their matter was called before Ag Chief Magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle in the Portof- Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court and one of their attorneys, Criston J Williams, indicated he had spoken to them and they understood the position the court is in. The men previously appeared before Busby Earle-Caddle on April 26, when they became irate after the magistrate indicated she was unable to preside over their matters and had no choice but to adjourn it to a later date.

They began hurling obscenities as they were being taken out of the courtroom. Other prisoners who were not affected also joined in the protest.

The prisoners’ venting came after the elevation of Ayers-Caesar to the High Court Bench. The judiciary first assured that her appointment as a judge would not have any negative impact on the administration of justice and in particular, those matters over which she had been presiding, but a day after the prisoners’ protest, the former chief magistrate resigned as a judge.

Lawyers for the six are expected to write to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) before Friday to ascertain the prosecution’s position on the murder inquiry.

Busby Earle-Caddle has adjourned the matter to May 23, and urged the defence to write to the DPP. “Please follow up on the letter.

It is a 2010 matter,” she said before adjourning the matter to wait the response of the DPP.

The six have been charged for the murder of CEPEP employee Russell Antoine at Covigne Road on May 2010.

He said this figure in the 18 month period before October 2015 was $570,107,188. Rambharat attributed this decline to factors such as increased availability of local produce at farmers’ markets at better prices, challenging in obtaining foreign exchange and a lower wheat prices over the last three years.

Later in the sitting, Rambharat disclosed that guns that were procured for his ministry for the Praedial Larceny Squad, went missing in 2014. He said this situation was outlined in the recently submitted Auditor General’s report to Parliament and might not have received attention, were it not for the actions of a whistle- blower.

Saying these guns which could have “found their way on to the streets,” have since been found and are being kept in a safe place.

He added that an investigation into this matter is ongoing.