Minister questions Governor’s judgment

(CNS): Facing more questions from the press regarding the Special Police Investigation Team (SPIT), Minister Alden McLaughlin made it clear yesterday that he believed Governor Stuart Jack had made some poor decisions regarding Operation Tempura. The Minister called his judgment into questioned and said he did not see how it was possible for the Governor to  continue to support Bridger and his investigation given the things that had happened so far.

Speaking at the post Cabinet Media Briefing on Thursday morning (20 November) McLaughlin said that he thought the Governor had been ill-advised andhad exercised poor judgment with regard to the investigation. He added that it was ironic that the Governor had always championed the issue of good governance but was also championing Martin Bridger the head of SPIT, who it was now clear could not hope to prevail in any kind of tribunal or legal hearing.

“Bridger must be disqualified from this situation for two good reasons,” McLaughlin said. “Not only did Justice Cresswell determine that he acted in bad faith but he has breached every rule of law. To add insult to injury he has said that the Chief Justice can’t be trusted.” The minister said that the Governor has been intent in his pursuit of good governance and therefore McLaughlin questioned how he could then allow Bridger to continue given he was now the one in breach of the rules.

“What tribunal is going to convict anyone based on evidence given by Bridger now?” asked McLaughlin. The minister based his arguments on the findings of Sir Peter Cresswell who presided over the Judicial Review which quashed, as unlawful, the search warrants obtained by Bridger and SPIT to search Justice Alex Henderson’s home and office. (See http://caymannewsservice.com/2008/10/29/bridger-abused-process).

McLaughlin illustrated again the problem with the current constitutional arrangement that allowed the Governor to make decisions in isolation and without consultation with the elected officials and that this was the best possible illustration of the need for more people to be involved in police matters so the risk of one person exercising poor judgment could be mitigated

The minister said the investigation, which was already running at over $4 million and would certainly be far more before it was over, was simply throwing good money after bad and while it was unfair it was the constitution that was allowing it to happen and in the end the elected officials could only hope the Governor would listen to their position. “Hopefully the Governor will hear our recommendations,” added McLaughlin, “We are not going to support Bridger.”

Even though the elected government has effectively been frozen out of the investigation regarding the senior officers within the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service and members of the judiciary, the people’s representatives have recently began to speak out vociferously against it, particularly in the wake of Cresswell’s ruling.

Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts, commonly more reticent about revealing the divide between the elected officials and the Governor more often noted by his colleague McLaughlin, has said that he also hopes the Governor will start to take heed of what is clearly a significant disagreement on continuing the investigation and that the elected government would not vote for any more money to support it. “We hope that logic will prevail and the Governor will not use his reserve powers given the level of the divide between us now,” Tibbetts said.  

Although the elected ministers said they were not promoting the idea of stopping an investigation where it was required, they said that given the circumstances surrounding what the LoGB termed the Henderson fiasco Bridger had to be disassociated.

He also said that Henderson was back at work on the bench and that it was lucky that the Cresswell ruling had prevented that situation from going even further than it did, despite the fact that it was obvious the Henderson situation would cost the Cayman Island money to put right. He noted too that now Kernohan had been dismissed he hoped the rest of that matter could be quickly put to bed and he trusted that the Governor had made thatdecisions based on proper advise and that there would be no adverse consequences.

Tibbetts said he expected the Governor would make a statement shortly on the circumstances surrounding the investigation going forward but that all in all given Cresswell’s findings it simply was not in the best interest of Cayman for Bridger to remain here.

Although Bridger has refused to speak with the media, he said to be speaking regularly with Desmond Seales, editor of Cayman Net News, and he was reported in that publication saying that his investigation was not over.