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Helicopter ‘soon come’
(CNS): January 2010 could be the month that the police finally get their long awaited helicopter. Despite endless delays regarding the arrival of the crime fighting machine, a police spokesperson has confirmed that it is scheduled to arrive this month. Well over three years after the decision was made to purchase a helicopter for the RCIPS was first made and a considerable amount of controversy later, the police could be fighting crime from the skies on a regular basis if the machine does in fact leave Louisiana, where it is currently being stored, as expected.
Last month the Central Tenders Committee ran a series of advertisements both locally and overseas for piloting services, with a submission deadline of noon on Friday, 22 January. During the last meeting of Finance Committee in October 2009, Deputy Chief Secretary Franz Manderson explained that, while the helicopter had at that time been expected to arrive in September 2009, it was delayed because of difficulties regarding the maintenance contract. It is not clear if a contract for servicing in the helicopter has yet been awarded or if the CTC has received any suitable bids regarding piloting services. Nor is it clear if the helicopter has been retrofitted, since it was purchased from a British police service in 2007 for CI$1.8 million to meet Civil Aviation Authority regulations.
The ongoing saga of the police helicopter began at the start of the PPM’s administration when they increased the police budget by $50 million which included covering the cost of a dedicated police helicopter. However, as the process moved forward the needs of the police and the desires of the Cabinet about what the helicopter should do came into conflict. In September 2008 the government accused the former police commissioner, Stuart Kernohan, of misleading them about the machine he had bought and what it could and could not do.
Kernohan, who was at the time suspended from office as a result of Operation Tempura and off-island, countered the accusations in a public statement saying government was fully aware about the capabilities and details of the helicopter that had been bought, and every day that the helicopter was delayed was a good day for the bad guys.
Following the dispute Auditor General Dan Duguay then conducted a special report on the machine’s purchase, which concluded that there had been mis-communication between police and Cabinet over the helicopter’s role, and he noted that the money budgeted for it was nowhere near enough to cover a machine that could do police work as well as search, rescue and emergency airlift. Duguay recommended that government asses the cost to modify the helicopter or cut its losses, sell it and start over, but this time with a clearer understanding of what was needed.
Nine months later, however, Duguay stated at the August PAC meeting that he was dismayed that nothing had been done and the helicopter was still sitting in a hanger in Louisiana with a question mark over its future. The new commissioner, David Baines, told PAC that the chopper could work and that it was time to bring the machine over and start using it.
Despite that promising development, the helicopter is still in the US and the RCIPS continue to depend on Cayman Helicopters when they are in need of air support.
Helicopter faces more delays
(CNS): The goal of Cayman’s law enforcement agencies to benefit from their own helicopter in the fight against crime remains an elusive target as news came on Friday from Deputy Commissioner of Police Anthony Ennis that the machine will not be in Cayman before January 2010. Despite reassurances from Police Commissioner David Baines at a Public Accounts Committee meeting in August that the chopper would have been in Cayman by September, Ennis said there were further delays.
Answering questions in the Legislative Assembly’s Finance Committee on this year’s operating expenses for the RCIPS on Friday, Anthony Ennis confirmed that the helicopter was still in the US and it would not be here until early next year. Deputy Chief Secretary Franz Manderson explained that there had been delays in the tendering process to find an organisation to maintain the helicopter and there was no point bringing it down to the islands until that contract was in place as the police would still not be able to use it.
The ongoing saga of the police helicopter began back at the beginning of the PPM’s administration when they increased the police budget significantly and made an extra $50 million commitment to help fight crime, which included the purchase of a police helicopter. However, as the process moved forward the needs of the police and the desires of the Cabinet about what the helicopter should do came into conflict. In September 2008 the government accused the former police commissioner, Stuart Kernohan, of misleading them about the purchase as the helicopter he bought from a former police service in the UK could not fill the requirement that government had asked for.
Kernohan, who was at the time suspended from office as a result of Operation Tempura and off-island, countered the accusations in a public statement saying government was fully aware about the capabilities and details of the helicopter that had been bought, and every day that the helicopter was delayed was a good day for the bad guys.
Auditor General Dan Duguay then conducted a special report on the machine’s purchase, which concluded that there certainly had been some mis-communication between police and Cabinet over the helicopter’s role, and he noted that the money allocated for it was nowhere near enough to cover a machine that could do both police work and search, rescue and emergency airlift. Duguay recommended that government asses the cost to modify the helicopter or cut its losses and sell the current helicopter and start over, but this time with a clearer understanding of what was needed.
Nine months later, however, Duguay stated at the August PAC meeting that he was dismayed that nothing had been done and the helicopter was still sitting in a hanger in Louisiana with a question mark over its future. However, when PAC heard from the new commissioner, he said it could work and that it was time to bring the machine over and start using it. Despite that promising development, it appears that the saga continues and Cayman remains dependent on the one ‘tour’ helicopter designed to take people on airborne excursions, for drug and firearms interdiction.
Kernohan accused of betrayal
(CNS): Deputy Commissioner of Police Anthony Ennis said on Friday that he had been betrayed by the former commissioner of police, Stuart Kernohan, over the Operation Tempura investigation, which he said had been very stressful for him. Calling most of the allegations against him ludicrous, Ennis indicated that he believed that it was all about destroying his career as there were attempts to set him up. He said the former commissioner was behind a lot of the things that happened to him.
Appearing in court as a prosecution witness during the trial of Lyndon Martin, the deputy commissioner explained that he could not understand how things got to the stage they did as just basic policing would have revealed very quickly that the allegations against him were ridiculous. Ennis stated that Kernohan knew full well that he had a very poor opinion of both the paper published by Desmond Seales, Cayman Net News, and the man himself, to whom Ennis was accused of leaking sensitive information.
Ennis explained that he had known Seales by reputation for the 28 years he had been in the Cayman Islands but had not met him until after Seales came out of prison and began attending the same church. He said other than on a few occasions when they were in the same place or through the normal official communication with the press, Ennis said he had very limited contact with him. He said many years ago Seales interviewed him and revealed information about a certain specialist police course he had been on in the story after Ennis had specifically asked him not to. He also said that Seales had called him on his cell-phone once with regards to an operation he was involved with to recapture escaped prisoners.
Ennis told the court that Kernohan was well aware of the animosity that existed between Ennis and Seales, as he had at one point instigated legal proceedings against him because of stories, which Ennis believed were defamatory, published in Cayman Net News. Ennis said that although he had started the legal action in his professional role, he did not feel he was supported by his chief (Kernohan). He said when he applied for reimbursement of the $3,500 he spent on legal fees, he was told by Kernohan, in writing, that he would not get the money.
When the prosecuting attorney, Andrew Radcliffe QC, presented Ennis with the list of allegations, Ennis emotionally denied every one of them stating that the idea that anyone could have believed them was absurd. “It was so clear that this was about destroying my career,” he told the court. Raising his voice on occasion and veering off into explanations illustrating why the accusations were ludicrous, Ennis was clearly still very disturbed by the entire episode.
Recalling his interview with the officers from Operation Tempura, Ennis said he could not believe that they had come all this way based on the allegations as he said that if Kernohan had made just the basic background checks it would have found it was all nonsense. “I was absolutely betrayed by that gentleman,” Ennis added. Despite the fact that the allegations that Ennis was leaking sensitive information to Desmond Seales, the publisher at Net News, were made by Lyndon Martin, Ennis gave the impression that he was reserving his animosity for others and said he have never really understood why Martin had made the allegations as there was no bad blood between him and Martin.
Although he said he did not know Martin very well, he acknowledged knowing some members of his family. Martin’s QC, Trevor Burke, then indicated that Martin had made the allegations because Desmond Seales had told him that the information had come from Ennis.
Burke asked Ennis if he forwarded internal e-mails, such as parts of Gold Command minutes to other officers and individuals inside the RCIPS. Ennis said he did and he sent lots of emails to other officers every day that contained all sorts of information. Burke asked Ennis if it was possible that other people in the RCIPS could then in turn forward Ennis’ e-mails on to other people, and Ennis agreed they could.
“Do you see what could’ve happened here?” Burke asked Ennis, who nodded and acknowledged how it was that Martin could have got sight of emails from his e-mail address that Ennis himself had not in fact sent. Ennis also revealed to the court that he had never been informed that Evans had testified that Seales had also told him that Ennis was the source regarding the helicopter.
During Burke’s questioning Ennis admitted that he had believed that he was not liked by everyone in the service and even said some people despised him because of his country of origin. He acknowledged a level of professional distrust between himself and the other Ddeputy commissioner, Rudolph Dixon, as Ennis said that, despite his reassurances, Dixon perceived him as a threat to job of commissioner, which Dixon hoped he would get one day.
Ennis told the court that when Kernohan had instructed him to remove officers from the RCIPS that were underperforming, he said he knew full well that those officers would run to Dixon and complain about him. Ennis said in those circumstances when he looked to Kernohan for support he felt that the former commissioner had let him down. Ennis also acknowledged that disgruntled officers had regularly run to the media with their grievances and that Seales had been a willing recipient of those complaints.
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PAC to tackle helicopter saga
(CNS): The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is set to address the ongoing fiasco regarding the police helicopter, which has already cost government more than $3 million with no sign of the aircraft. Discussing a report Auditor General Dan Duguay submitted in October 2008, the committee decided that they needed to hear from the people involved as to exactly what was going on. Duguay said he was dismayed that having made straight forward recommendations about the helicopter, they had still not been acted upon more than nine months later.
Chaired by North Side Independent MLA Ezzard Miller, the committee asked Duguay a number of questions on Wednesday (29 July) about his report and findings as well as what he knew about the current situation. Duguay explained that in the report, which he had conducted as a result of a request by the governor, he had recommended that the government move to assess the cost of retro fitting the craft, or alternatively, and what he thought was more prudent, sell the helicopter as quickly as possible and start the process of assessing s the police air surveillance needs from scratch.
“I thought I had given clear options to follow but I am dismayed that nothing has been done,” Duguay told PAC. “When I finished the report in October of last year I was told the helicopter was ready to be brought here, but it’s still not here and I’m interested to find out why not.”
Moses Kirkconnell, the only opposition member on the committee, said that the $3 million spent on the helicopter was bad enough but his real concern was that even today no one seemed to have any idea where the helicopter actually is or what’s happening to it.
Miller said that he understood the helicopter is still being held in Louisiana and that government is paying a not insignificant storage fee to keep it there, something which Duguay concurred, noting that was the last he had heard too.
The PAC agreed, not without a hint of irony, that as it was unlikely that former commissionerStuart Kernohan was going to come and answer to the PAC and they had better start with David Baines, the new RCIPS commissioner. It was also decided that Eric Bush from the portfolio and the Chief Secretary Donovan Ebanks, who was deputy chief secretary at the time of the purchase and closely involved, would need to be called.
Duguay also recommended that a representative from the Civil Aviation Authority be called as well, as he noted that part of the problem with the whole project was that no one from the police had spoken with the CAA to discuss the rules regarding flight to the Sister Islands without flotation devices. He said that the CAA had said it was willing to discuss the rules regarding air operation and they were not necessarily set in stone. Duguay said the CAA may well be able to shed light on the absolute minimum requirements for using helicopter between all three islands.
Duguay noted that part of the whole problem was that the needs of government and the police had not been properly established before the purchase went ahead. “There was a mission creep when people heard we had got a helicopter and people wanted to add things” he said. Duguay explained that the government bought a police helicopter for drug interdiction but then wanted to turn it into a search and rescue helicopter, something that actually costs in the region of $20 million. “Cabinet was sold an idea but the equipment was not capable of it.” He noted that no one in the RCIPS really had the expertise to purchase a helicopter.
Miller noted the problem Cayman now faced was that the helicopter was largely obsolete. “If we don’t make a decision soon we might not be able to sell it,” he added. It was noted that the reason why the UK had sold the helicopter in the first place was because it would have been too expensive to retro fit the craft to meet the new CAA regulations there — ones which the committee believed would soon come to Cayman as well.
Dwayne Seymour, another committee member present, lamented the fact that this purchase seemed to be systematic of situations in government departments where the country keeps buying things that are not right, something he said the new government had to tackle.
(Photo top: an EC135T1 helicopter similar to that bought by the RCIPS)
.jpg "Helicopter blame shifts")
Helicopter blame shifts
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(CNS): Suspended Police Commissioner Stuart Kernohan (left) has accused government ministers of making statements to the press regarding the police helicopter that “appear purposely misleading, politically motivated, possibly slanderous or libelous, and certainly incorrect”. Furthermore, he suggested that every day the machine is delayed, for which he blames Cabinet, is “a good day for the bad guys”.
Kernohan was responding to accusations by Members of Cabinet at a press briefing on 4 September that the helicopter would not meet local requirements and the fault lay with Kernohan. “That Commissioner of Police misled us into believing that it would do what we needed it to and I am extremely disappointed. I was not elected to waste people’s funds,” said Minister Arden McLean.
Seeking to “set the record straight”, Kernohan maintained that despite their claims to the contrary, “at no point over the last two years were Cabinet ministers in any way misled or deceived – intentionally or otherwise – about the capabilities, the cost, or the cost of retrofitting or modifying the helicopter the Government has purchased. They were aware of every detail, every step of the way, and to state otherwise now – more than two years after this process was initiated and multiple briefings – is, at best, disingenuous.”
Shifting the blame to Cabinet, rather than their claimed deficiencies in the helicopter, for delays in its arrival, Kernohan said, “The people of the Cayman Islands should not be deceived: There is real urgency to putting thishelicopter into operation, and every day it is delayed is ‘a good day for the bad guys’. Why would anyone wish to delay the arrival of this asset?”
Through his local media liaison, journalist and publisher David Legge, Kernohan, who is still Police Commissioner, said intelligence suggested that the quantity of drugs and firearms into the Cayman Islands increased dramatically in anticipation of the arrival of the police helicopter. “Those who would do these islands harm view this helicopter as a serious threat to their illegal and illicit operations, and view the delay as an opportunity to act with increased impunity.”
Pointing a finger at government, he said the real issue behind the delay of the arrival of the helicopter was not the structural and equipment modifications that they had approved, but Cabinet’s decision in November 2007 to place out to full tender the support services for the machine, including hangar and maintenance services, pilot recruitment and hiring, and other ancillary issues. He said that at the time, Cabinet was warned that such a lengthy process would delay the implementation of the helicopter by at least six to nine months. They decided to move forward with this process anyway and, importantly, as of this week, these support issues still have not been resolved.
Kernohan said he personally briefed government ministers on multiple occasions on the status and the complexities regarding the acquisition of the police helicopter, and did not disagree with Minister Arden McLean’s assertion that approximately six briefings took place.
“At these briefings, however, it appeared that attending Ministers were not even taking notes or absorbing important details regarding this purchase. Therefore, at each briefing, we would have to start at the beginning and repeat much of the same information as if no previous briefings had taken place. Nevertheless, these briefings were comprehensive and inclusive. No salient facts or information were omitted – purposefully or otherwise,” he said.
The briefings included updates on the progress of various mandatory documents required by the Cayman Islands Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), one of which was the Police Operations Manual where agreement was to be made on flight parameters for the police helicopter, including when and where it could be flown. This manual had to be approved by the CAA, said Kernohan, and claimed Cabinet members were informed that for all aircraft used for this type of work, certain weather and visibility conditions would ground the helicopter. He said comprehensive discussions took place with the CAA, and that the regulation of the helicopter was their decision.
Kernohan continued, “Despite the multiple comprehensive briefings to Cabinet, a review of the audiotape of the recent press briefing suggests that Ministers still have little comprehension of the operational capabilities of the machine they themselves have purchased on behalf of the people of the Cayman Islands.”
He said that because of the considerable cost to acquire and maintain a proprietary helicopter for the RCIPS, Cabinet made itknown from the outset that a custom-made, perfectly equipped new aircraft was beyond the financial reach of the Cayman Islands. The long delivery time was also unsuitable because of the worldwide demand for such machines.
“Compromises at the behest of Cabinet were made, including buying a pre-owned helicopter at a substantially reduced price and retrofitting it to meet the specific needs of the islands. Cabinet fully knew this and also knew what trade-offs were involved in moving ahead with the helicopter which was ultimately selected – a 1999 Eurocopter 135T1 police craft. They made decisions on the helicopter including the allocation of funds for the floats which they now claim they know nothing about,” Kernohan said.
The original purchase price of this helicopter was $1.8million with approximately an additional $1 million allocated to modifying or retrofitting the machine. A considerable saving was made on the purchase of the helicopter against its current market value at that time, Kernohan claimed.
“Cabinet and the portfolio of the Civil Service have since attempted to cut the annual operating budget (agreed at CI$1 million annually) for the operation and maintenance of this machine, and I was told that there was insufficient funding available due to the Government’s financial position. In my view, the proposed budget was the minimum required to run the machine safely and effectively, and this was forcefully highlighted in briefings and written reports."
He said that given the cost constraints imposed by Cabinet, the helicopter would provide a very capable machine. It would be able to complete all the tasks outlined to the ministers and would place the Cayman Islands in the forefront of police air-support provision in the Caribbean, he said. Some weather and visibility conditions would prevent the machine from flying, but this applied to all helicopters, particularly those flying under visual flight rules.
“Any claims that this helicopter may have to be sold into the open market because of lack of operational capability is simply scaremongering and untrue,” Kernohan said. “Contrary to impressions left by certain Cabinet Ministers, this helicopter is more than capable of flying at night except when visibility or weather is prohibitive.”
“As many in Cayman know, I returned to the UK to be with my father during what we feared would be his final days. I am saddened to report that he recently passed away after fighting a long and courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease,” said Kernohan.
Concluding with a damning blow at government ministers he said, “Even on his worst days, however, my father’s memory was far superior to that on display by the Ministers at their recent press briefing. One must wonder whether their collective (and convenient) memory loss was motivated by political considerations or an otherwise unknown agenda.”
Police helicopter no use
(CNS): Even before the long awaited police helicopter has arrived in the Cayman Islands, the government has announced that the machine will not meet local requirements. Minister Arden McLean put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Stuart Kernohan. “That Commissioner of Police misled us into believing that it would do what we needed it to and I am extremely disappointed. I was not elected to waste people’s funds,” said McLean.
The announcement that the helicopter was not equipped to fulfil the government’s original remit as laid out in various policy documents was made at the weekly post-cabinet press briefing by the Leader of Government Business, Kurt Tibbetts, who said government had just learned the bad news.
“We were told all along that this helicopter would meet the policy needs but we have only now discovered that the government was misled,” said Tibbetts. He explained that the purchase of an aircraft was part of the $50 million commitment that the People’s Progressive Party (PPM) government had made to the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) soon after coming to office in order to make Cayman more safe and secure. He said however, the policy requirement from the beginning had been that any aircraft acquired would serve all three islands and be able to operate on or offshore, day and night.
“We have now learned that the aircraft which was acquired cannot fulfil these fundamental requirements as it currently stands,” said Tibbetts. “Efforts are underway to ascertain the practicalities, costs and time scales of modifying and or equipping the unit to meet these fundamental requirements. Once this information is determined we will take a decision on which way to proceed.”
He said that it was also possible that the helicopter would be sold and the search would begin again. All three ministers at the briefing, which also included Minister Charles Clifford, expressed their disappointment over what they said was misleading information given to them by those involved.
Tibbetts said the government had heard, at the very least, six updates from the Commissioner about the helicopter and were never once told that the machine would not meet all the requirements. Minister Mclean also said that not only had they found out, after the government kept probing with the Portfolio of Internal Affairs to find out what was happening, that the helicopter could not function fully at night, but also that it could not be fitted with flotation devices to save the crew in the event they needed to bail out.
Reacting to accusations that rumours had persisted that there were serious problems with the helicopter for some time now, the ministers all said that while they were being told by their technical advisors time and time again that all was well, and they had no reasons to disbelieve the Commissioner who they said was very much at the helm of the project.
“The Commissioner misled me,” said McLean. “Stuart Kernohan did not give us the proper information.” The government said that the problems had finallycome to light since new people had taken over the project and eventually discovered the various problems. Tibbetts said that so far around $2.8 million had been spent, and although he did not believe the money was missing, he believed that the money had been spent on a helicopter that simply was not up to the job it would be required to do. He also explained that the announcement was being made now because the government had discovered the problem and wanted to see if they could mitigate the circumstances before things went any further.
The Ministers also emphasised the constitutional problems highlighted once again by the system of government that keeps elected officials out of police business. The government said that as they are not responsible for the operating issues surrounding police work and only responsible for appropriating funds and directing policy, their hands are tied when things go wrong.
Minister Mclean made it clear he would like to see Kernohan, who currently remains on suspension from his post pending an external investigation, removed from office. Kernohan is still on full pay while the investigation by Metropolitan Police officers from London, led by Senior Investigating Officer Martin Bridger who is on contract to the Governor’s office, continue their enquiries into allegations of corruption within the RCIPS. Tibbetts said that the helicopter debacle did not form part of the independent investigation currently being conducted by Bridger and his team.
CNS is continuing to make efforts to contact the Acting Commissioner David George, Deputy Commissioner Anthony Ennis, Suspended Commissioner Stuart Kernohan and the Governor’s office for comment.
Bridger left out on legal limb
(CNS): Full story — As arguments opened in court today between teams of attorneys over claims made by former police commissioner Stuart Kernohan, it was revealed that the Cayman government's legal team was no longer representing the former senior investigating officer of Operation Tempura, Martin Bridger. As Martin Griffiths QC, who is representing the attorney general and the governor, argued to have the former and current governor (who is now cited on the new claim) and other issues struck from the writ, the question of why Bridger was no longer being represented by the AG’s office was said to be part of a closed ruling made some weeks ago by Justice Charles Quin.
Bridger, who is now one of five people listed in the claim, was represented at the hearing by local defense attorney Anthony Akiwumi, who has not yet made submissions in connection with his new client. The judge queried a number of times why he could not know the reason that the attorney general, who is also listed in the claim by Kernohan, was no longer acting for Bridger.
Sir Alan Moses of the UK Court of Appeal, who was brought in especially for this hearing, described the entire case relating to Operation Tempura as “opaque and bewildering” but also questioned why Bridger had been “hung out on a limb”. He said that this gave the appearance of adding fuel to the conspiracy theories alleged by the plaintiff (Kernohan) in his latest statement of claim.
The main focus of the current hearing, which opened in a public court on Thursday morning, is for the judge to rule on exactly who will be named in the claim when the case itself is heard, the circumstance of how far the claim will go and the issue of security of costs in the event that Kernohan was to lose.
The writ filed by Kernohan names the former governor Stuart Jack, the current governor Duncan Taylor, Attorney General Samuel Bulgin, the former acting commissioner James Smith and the actual Operation Tempura senior investigating officer Martin Bridger. In response to the writ the AG's legal team is claiming that the only defendants who should be considered in the actual claim are the Attorney General's Office and Bridger.
Kernohan, who was fired in 2008 when he refused to return to the Cayman Islands during the Tempura investigation, despite the orders of the then governor Stuart Jack, says that the people listed in his claim were all directly involved in his suspension and subsequent sacking and they acted in bad faith.
The former top cop was one of three senior police officers removed from office during the discredited Tempura corruption investigation but he was never charged with any misconduct relating to the investigation or found to have committed any act of wrong doing.
He states that the governor and the attorney general were both party to the decision to allow two Cayman Net News employees to go looking for evidence of a corrupt relationship between the owner of the local newspaper Desmond Seales and Deputy Commissioner of Police Anthony Ennis, so they should never have suspended him for that decision. Kernohan claims that by doing so both men are as liable as Bridger for the subsequent chain of events.
Griffiths argued, however, that if Kernohan has a case at all it is nothing more than a wrongful dismissal and the former governor cannot be personally liable for that. Griffiths claimed that Kernohan was not sacked because of his part in Operation Tempura or the alleged break-in to the newspaper offices by the employees but because he refused to come back to work, as he tried to steer the arguments away from the now notorious UK police investigation.
Answering the allegations by Kernohan of misfeasance in a public office, the AG’s attorney argued that the plaintiff had not offered anything like enough evidence for that to stand up and therefore he should not be allowed to make the claim.
Despite taking most of the day to present his case, Griffiths essentially argued that the suit should be edited down to a wrongful dismissal case against the attorney general and Martin Bridger. He also said that the financial claims made by Kernohan should be limited to the terms of what remained on his employment contract – which would amount to nine months pay and benefits — although he said that Kernohan’s attorneys should, according to the rules of the court, spell out that figure.
The UK based QC representing the AG also asked for costs in security of around $75,000 as he described Kernohan as an “extremely mobile and evasive plaintiff” that would prove difficult to enforce any financial judgment against were his claim to be unsuccessful. Thelawyer said that the legal team had already had to employ a private detective to track Kernohan down as his attorneys had failed to provide an address. Griffiths revealed that the former top cop was now living in Pasadena, California, where he is understood to have been completing his helicopter pilot’s license.
Kernohan’s legal team made a start on arguments of his behalf before the court was adjourned and said they stuck by their claim that this was a case of bad faith and in short the entire episode was outrageous. Andrew Hogarth QC, who is arguing Kernohan’s case, pointed out that the allegations they hoped to prove “were very serious”.
The core of the former police officer’s claim is that as Jack and Bulgin both knew what course of action Kernohan had taken in regards to trying to find evidence of leaks of police information to the owner of Net News, and to allow him to be suspended six months later for that action amounted to misfeasance and essentially an attempt to cover up their own culpability in the decision. Kernohan is also accusing all of the players of bad faith over the fact that a ruling made by the chief justice in refusing a search warrant to Bridger for Kernohan’s home had exonerated him even before he was suspended from office. This ruling however was not revealed until after he had been dismissed.
Hogarth will continue submissions on behalf of Kernohan spelling out why the governor, in particular, needs to remain on the writ and why the claim is much more than a case of wrongful dismissal. Lord Justice Moses said he would sit through Saturday if necessary to give the lawyers chance to thrash out all their arguments while everyone was present in the Cayman Islands in order to clarify exactly what and who will be in Kernohan’s claim when the case itself is eventually heard.
Cops say chopper still coming
(CNS): It probably came as no surprise that the RCIPS helicopter did not arrive in Cayman last month as expected, given the controversy that has surrounded the acquisition of the machine since it was first mooted in 2007. Police said today, not for the first time, that the helicopter is due to arrive here in a few weeks. However, the newly appointed RCIPS Air Operations Manager, Steve Fitzgerald, confirmed that the machine had undergone operational acceptance testing in Louisiana last week.
The delay, police said, was due this time to the devastation in Haiti and the subsequent restrictions placed on Haitian air space, which led the RCIPS to review its flight plans and delivery schedule.
“The route has given us a few challenges with fuel availability and the necessary priorities surrounding Haiti that we could not have envisaged,” said Fitzgerald. “However, in gaining the necessary permissions with the assistance of the chief immigration officer, I am sure we are able to resolve this and I can confidently say that the helicopter will be with us in two or three weeks. All the project team (is) working hard to achieve this timescale”
In an official RCIPS release, police said that the RCIPS Air Operations Unit is making plans for the arrival of the aircraft and, as soon as it lands, training for the staff who will operate it will commence.
The unit is based at the RCIPS Air Operations offices at the Owen Roberts International Airport and Commissioner of Police David Baines has applied for the necessary Police Air Operations Certificate from the Civil Aviation Authority. “Having a dedicated air resource which can assist with searches, operations and tracking offenders will make a huge difference to the operational capacity of the RCIPS to protect our borders,” Baines stated.
The EC135 is fitted with FLIR (forward looking infra red) cameras and broadcast quality daylight cameras, all with recording facility for evidence. Police officials said that Fitzgerald, a former police inspector who managed a UK air support unit, is well acquainted with the equipment. “I am sure that the benefits of this technology will soon become evident, but we do need to complete the training first to ensure the crew is fully able to realise those benefits” he said.
The helicopter has been fitted with aviation police radios for use into the Cayman Islands public radio system, and carries a ‘Nightsun’ light capable of lighting up the area of a football field. The ‘Skyshout’ public address system is capable of alerting the public on the ground, whether it be to lookout for a missing person, an offender, or passing other information in a critical incident.
The helicopter is also fitted with a video downlink system, allowing the camera images to be relayed to other officers or commanders, giving the benefit of real time images to those on the ground.
Police did not say, however, if the chopper has been retro fitted with the necessary equipment, such as the pop-up floats and winch, in order to allow it to fly to the Sister Islands and act as a rescue vessel as well as a police operations unit.
The controversy surrounding the machine started when the previous administration announced they had been misled about the capabilities of the machine the RCIPS eventually bought by the former commissioner, Stuart Kernohan. At the time Kernohan was on required leave as a result of the Operation Tempura incident, but he issued a number of statements suggesting the Cabinet was never misled but had simply not understood what could be purchased for the money which they budgeted.
The helicopter cost around $1.3 million and was acquired from a UK police service. Following the controversy, Auditor General Dan Duguay conducted a value for money report and observed that the goals of the elected government and the police when if came to what the machine would do had been at odds and miscommunication had resulted in a machine that was suitable for police operations but not for anything else.
Since then a decision was made to examine what could be done to adapt the existing machine to meet the wider expectations and then bring the machine to Cayman.
No information has been given about what if any changes have been made.
Police confirmed that the provision of maintenance and piloting for the long term use of the helicopter has still not been resolved and negotiations are continuing. “However, the RCIPS has made interim arrangements to ensure that this much needed operational resource is not delayed any further on commercial grounds, and the public can expect to see the aircraft in the air soon,” the police said. CTC has reportedly received three bids from firms wanting to take on the piloting services for the next two years.
“Keystone cops” got it wrong
(CNS): Despite the fact that Crown counsel told the jury that their feelings towards newspaper publisher Desmond Seales or Operation Tempura shouldn’t impact their decision on the guilt or otherwise of Lyndon Martin, his defence counsel pointed out that both were, in fact, central to the whole “scandalous” trial. Trevor Burke QC told the jury that almost the minute "the keystone cops stepped off the plane they got it wrong.” He said that all roads led to Seales and that the behaviour of the Operation Tempura officers at the cost of the Cayman public was “an outrage".
During his closing submissions to the court, Andrew Radcliffe QC, on behalf of the Crown told the jury that neither Desmond Seales nor the officers from Operation Tempura were on trial, and while the fallout from the investigation had been enormous, it was essentially down to Lyndon Martin.
Radcliffe told the court that Crown witnesses had been angry at the wrong people. He said Seales was angry at Evans, Evans was angry at Tempura, Ennis was angry at Kernohan, but Radcliffe told the jury that Martin was where they should be directing their anger. Radcliff even implied that while everyone was angry with Martin Bridger over the unlawful arrest of Justice Alex Henderson, Bridger and the other officers were only in Cayman because of Martin, who had made the allegations against Deputy Commissioner Anthony Ennis.
However, in his closing address on behalf of the defendant Lyndon Martin, Burke pointed out that the suggestion that Martin was responsible for the unlawful arrest of Justice Henderson was preposterous. No one was suing Lyndon Martin, he observed, adding that Martin had never even spoken to Justice Henderson. The defence counsel told the court that the Operation Tempura team had got it wrong at the outset when they fixed on the idea that the 3 September 2007 entry into Net News was a burglary, even though they were categorically and repeatedly told that it was not a burglary by the chief justice.
Burke noted that, on a slight contribution from John Evans, Bridger unlawfully arrested Justice Henderson and implied he was complicit in a burglary that never happened. “It was Bridger that got everything wrong and now we have the Crown saying it’s all Lyndon Martin’s fault!” Burke exclaimed.
He suggested that Martin was being used as the scapegoat for the Operation Tempura fiasco and explained how Martin had been arrested for the burglary that never happened, locked up for 15 days, grilled for hours, denied food and then the police had even denied having custody of him to his family.
Burke explained that all Martin had done in the first instance was to pass on information to Deputy Commissioner Rudy Dixon that someone was leaking information to Desmond Seales about senior police officers and it could be Anthony Ennis. He explained how Martin had said over and over again that he did not want to make a formal complaint, but because of a series of events, circumstances and agendas things spiralled.
He pointed out to the jury how Dixon would have been concerned because Seales was clearly being leaked information about his personal life and it would serve Dixon’s interests if it was Ennis that was the source of the leak given their continuing feud. Burke noted that it was Desmond Seales’ lies that had convinced Martin that Ennis was the source – and not just Martin, but John Evans as well, who had entirely and independently corroborated Martin’s accusations when he went to the commissioner with the information that Seales had told him Ennis was the source of the false information on the helicopter. Stuart Kernohan was therefore a willing listener when Dixon told him about Martin’s fateful comments that August evening in Royal Palms as he had already heard the same from Evans.
Burke said the prosecution had also presented the jury with a significant burden as they had placed two people on the stand as key witnesses of truth that were in conflict with each other. John Evans, the first of the Crown’s witnesses of truth, told several people, including the court, that Seales had told him Ennis was his source. Seales, who was also presented as a witness of truth, Burke explained, had said that Evans was lying, so clearly one of the Crown’s witnesses of truth was lying.
“This dog’s breakfast of a prosecution doesn’t work when one prosecution witness is calling the other a liar,” said Burke. He suggested to the jury that John Evans was telling the truth and that Seales performance in the court was probably enough for the jury to work out that Seales would lie at the drop of a hat. Far from Lyndon Martin triggering off the whole investigation, Burke told the court that “all roads led back to Desmond Seales”, who, he suggested, had spun a web of deceit for who-knows-what grandiose plans.
Burke reminded the jury that several Crown witnesses had got on the stand and described the kind of person Seales was, aside from being described as a weasel, vindictive and prepared to treat people like dogs, they had noted how he cultivated an image that he had a hotline to the prison, that he was all powerful and had a hold on everyone.
Burke noted that while Martin had eventually realized that his assumptions about Ennis were wrong, he had in the first instance many, many reasons to suspect that Ennis was Seales’ source because of Seales’ own comments and behaviour. Burke said Martin had gained nothing and got no reward for what he did. He took great risks to warn a friend and had ended up on trial for his trouble.
Burke observed that there clearly was a leak from the RCIPS to Seales, even though it was not Ennis, and Burke noted how the Operation Tempura team had just ignored that fact and never sought to discover who it was. Burke stated that they had “bigger fish to fry” and had gone after a high court judge and seniorpolice officers for a burglary that never happened instead.
He said Martin had reported hearsay suspicions, which had been picked up by the senior officers in the RCIPS for their own reasons, and then it was Kernohan’s decision to bring in the officers from Scotland Yard and he soon came to realise that Bridger and Ashwin had got it all horribly wrong. Burke said he suspected that the whole trial against Martin would put everyone off ever telling the police their suspicions ever again, because if what they revealed to authorities turned out to be wrong they might just be arrested.
He also pointed out to the jury the irony of the sudden exoneration of John Jones, who was given his job back on the morning of the trial some seventeen months after his suspension from office – again for the burglary that never happened — as it was the only way the Crown could get the statement that Lyndon Martin had never signed into evidence.
Burke said that John Evans had been right when he said that Martin should not be on trial and described it as "little short of scandalous”, before telling the jury they had no choice but to find Lyndon Martin not guilty.
Martin won’t take stand
(CNS): The Crown closed its case against Lyndon Martin on Tuesday afternoon with a list of admissions from both parties, which included, among others, that officers from the UK special police investigation team had misrepresented the facts in the wider Operation Tempura investigation. On the heels of the list of admissions from both sides, came the news from Martin’s counsel, Trevor Bourke QC, that the defence would not be calling any witnesses. The jury will return on Wednesday morning to hear the closing summaries from both sides in a trial which has once again placed Operation Tempura under public scrutiny.
Before the list of admissions was read to the jury, the court heard the details of the interviews that Martin gave to the SPIT officers during the days following his arrest. Richard Coy, who was a member of SPIT and one of the officers involved in the unlawful arrest of Justice Alex Henderson, was only sworn in as a special constable in the RCIPS the day before Martin’s arrest but more than a month after he had arrived and began working as a police officer in Cayman.
Coy read from summaries compiled by the Crown from some nineteen interviews that Martin gave over a three day period. The court also heard that following his arrest Martin had been deprived of food, had serious concerns about the welfare of his children that the police did not address, and his family had been denied information of his whereabouts. The court also heard that while the chief justice had ruled that no such burglary had taken place, Martin was arrested for burglary, denied bail and kept in jail for fifteen days.
Coy, a member of the Special Police Investigation Team and the last Crown witness, revealed that during his interrogation of Martin, he had told Coy that he (Martin) had felt under pressure from senior RCIPS officers after he had made what heconsidered merely a warning to Deputy Commissioner Rudolph Dixon that there was a leak. He admitted how the situation had escalated but he insisted that he genuinely believed that Ennis was the leak at the time, based on the information he received from Desmond Seales, the publisher of Cayman Net News.
While he told the officers during the interrogation that he had exaggerated some of the information he had given to the first two officers from SPIT (Martin Bridger and Simon Ashwin), he had at the time still believed the accusations and as a result he had made some assumptions based on things said by, and the behaviour of, Seales. Martin told Coy, “You have to understand the character of Desmond Seales,” Martin told the officers. “He thinks he can orchestrate who is where and has power over them.”
He went on to say that there was immense pressure from the commissioner, Stuart Kernohan, for tangible evidence and Martin said that CS John Jones had told him he needed to supply the “knock out punch".” Martin said that when he gave his original warning to Dixon he expected that the RCIPS would investigate themselves as he did not want to make an official complaint and had never intended to fan the flames.
However, Martin insisted that while he had lied about how many hard copy documents he had seen, he said there were still indications coming from Seales that Ennis was his contact in the police. He also said that John Evans had also believed Ennis was Seales’ source on the helicopter, and when Coy had suggested that it was the other way round Martin said it was not.
During the cross examination of Coy by Burke, it was revealed that during the interrogation of Martin, Coy and the other SPIT officers knew that Evans had also said that Seales was telling him Ennis was his source, but the officers had concealed that from Martin, making him believe he was the only person saying this about Seales.
When asked by defence counsel why Coy had kept this information from Martin, the SPIT officer said he didn’t know why but he admitted that Martin was never once told that during the three days of interrogation. Coy also admitted that when Bridger had gone to a magistrate to get a warrant for Martin’s arrest he had not revealed that Evans, who was a prosecution witness, had said Seales was saying Ennis was his source.
SPIT officers were also revealed to have withheld information when they sought warrants against Henderson from a justice of the peace.
Coy was asked what he had known about Dixon (who is facing charges related to removing files on cases at the time), as one of the things that Martin had said Seales was feeding him was that Dixon was covering up arrests, but Coy said he couldn’t remember if he knew that at the time. He also again said he did not know if he knew at the time of Martin’s arrest that Dixon did father an illegitimate child with a Honduran woman, which was also true and had come to Martin via Seales.
The fact that Evans, who was a Crown witness and therefore considered a true witness by the prosecution, had told SPIT that Seales had told him Ennis was his informant was heavily emphasised by Burke before he ended his own questioning of Coy, who agreed that it was the case that Evans had made those allegations as well.