Archive for October 13th, 2008
Bridger says computer safe
(CNS): In response to questions submitted to the Senior Investigator on the special probe into allegations of police corruption, or ‘Operation Tempura’, by CNS, Martin Bridger has said that an electronic audit trail will protect the integrity of any court documents during his examination of Justice Alex Henderson’s computer.
In the wake of numerous concerns raised by members of the local legal profession and other parts of the offshore community regarding Bridger’s seizure of Henderson’s computer following his arrest, as well as suspicions that Bridger and his team of investigators are tapping phones, CNS submitted a number of questions to the Senior Investigator. Bridger said that in respect to the potentially sensitive material held by Justice Henderson, the team was working closely with his instructed solicitors on these matters.
“Examination of a computer is an examination to identify any material relevant to the investigation,” he added. “Any legally professionally privileged material will be isolated and will not be examined, and any material relating to cases being heard/to be heard by Justice Henderson will be identified, bookmarked and isolated. An electronic audit trail will be added to any such item and made available to the court administrator so that the court will be reassured that the integrity of any court document has not been compromised.”
Last week Henderson received approval for his request for a judicial review of his arrest and the search of his home and office by Bridger’s team in order to have the court review the legitimacy of two search warrants which resulted in his computer being seized. He has also filed an application to declare the searches unlawful seeking to have all items seized from his home and offices returned; damages for trespass “to land and goods” and “unlawful interference with goods among other things.
Aside from Bridger’s seizure of the computer, issues regarding his use of electronic surveillance have also been cause for concern in the community. Asked on numerous occasions if he is wire tapping and under what authority or law, Bridger has persistently refused to answer and he ignored the question again when submitted in writing from CNS.
He did however insist that, contrary to some theories making the rounds, his investigation into corruption within the police service is not a smoke screen for a far wider probe into the offshore sector. He said there was no truth to that accusation and no aspect of the investigation affects Cayman’s financial services or its regulatory system.
He acknowledged the potential the investigation had on Cayman’s reputation and said it was not taken lightly.
“However, it remains an independent investigation and the investigators have to follow the evidence,” Bridger said, despite the criticisms made by the Chief Justice Anthony Smellie, who suggested in an April ruling which was released in the public domain this week that the evidence was not pointing to any criminal activity.
In a long statement issued to the media on Friday evening (9 October) Bridger dismissed the ruling of the Chief Justice and insisted that both the Police Commissioner Stuart Kernohan and Chief Superintendent John Jones were still under investigation for misconduct in a public office.
Despite more at least $1.68 million and a year-long investigation, the basic premise of Bridger’s enquiry seems to be based on the concept that there was some deliberate intent by Kernohan and Jones against Deputy Commissioner Anthony Ennis when they began investigating allegations made by Lyndon Martin that the Deputy Commissioner was leaking information to local publisher Desmond Seales.
Bridger suggests the two officers broke the law when they encouraged Martin and his colleague John Evans to see if they could find evidence in the Net News office that there was indeed a leak from the RCIPS. In his ruling Smellie makes it clear that as the Commissioner of Police Kernohan would have an obligation to enquire into any such allegations even if they proved to be unfounded and that there was no evidence that Kernohan at any time thought Martin was lying and was pursuing the investigation for ulterior motives. The judge suggests quite the opposite when he asks in his ruling that if the two senior officers did not believe that Martin was telling the truth why would they enlist his help in trying to find the documents that would prove it was true.
“Indeed, one may ask rhetorically, if there was no genuine belief that the incriminatory material really existed what then would have been the purpose of seeking Martin’s and Evan’s assistance?”
The Chief Justice has criticised what Bridger has described as his search for the truth and has suggested that his entire case seems to be based on a mistaken notion cited by Ennis that Jones and Kernohan were somehow threatened by him and because of that pursued Martin’s allegations even though they knew they were fabricated.
Celebrating a life
In the coming days and weeks much will be said about this weekend’s tragic murder. However, as a community we cannot allow Estella Scott-Roberts’ death to overshadow a truly exceptional life.
Estella was born in 1975, the only child of Corrine and Quellon Scott. Growing up in Spot Bay on Cayman Brac, Estella attended Spot Bay Primary School and Cayman Brac High School, followed by a year of A’ level courses at John Grey High School. At Florida State University, she took a double major in Sociology and Family and Child Science.
Returning home to the Cayman Islands in 2001, she was appointed to the position of Officer for Women’s Affairs in the Ministry of Community Development, Women’s Affairs, Youth and Sports.
On International Women’s Day in March 2003, the first safe house for victims of domestic violence in the Cayman Islands was established, with Estella as the driving force. She was the obvious choice of Director for the Cayman Islands Crisis Centre and held that position for three years, coordinating the community education programmes and the fundraising, as well as the day-to-day operations of the Centre.
In August 2006, she felt it was time for a break from the 24/7 stress and resigned from the Crisis Centre, taking up a position as Corporate Communications Manager with Cable and Wireless, though she continued to be actively involved in the fight against domestic violence. Always a staunch advocate of the rights of women and children, in May 2007 she was appointed to the Human Right Committee.
In this collective Viewpoint celebrating the life of Estella Scott-Roberts, we would like to invite everyone who has a fond memory of this extraordinary young woman or would like to share an example of her warmth, strength and courage to add a comment.
We start with these words from Patrice Donalds:
Estella was a staunch advocate for women and children who were the victims of abuse here in our idyllic Cayman Islands. Many of her friends knew her when she began with the Ministry of Community Affairs, when she became Director of the Crisis Centre, and know her now as standing with God. The people who perpetrated this tragedy will know God’s wrath because God never sleeps. They know what atrocities they committed that made them cross paths with Estella, and they know how culpable they are in ending her life.
What they don’t know is that they have made life for people like themselves, abusers, cowards, denizens of violence, more difficult in our islands, because all women and men will stand up for the rights of women and children even morevociferously now. Those cowards need to be afraid, very afraid.
Estella, died because she refused to live life by the cowards’ terms. This poem is fitting to honour her life and tragic death.
Fully Alive by Dawna Markova
I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.