Archive for July 17th, 2009

Editor accused of blackmail

(CNS): Leader of Government Business McKeeva Bush hit out at the Editor in Chief of Cayman Net News, Desmond Seales, on Friday morning, accusing the newspaper boss of trying to blackmail him with an editorial published on 13 July. He said the editorial contained blatant lies and that for too long Seales had been getting away with threatening people who would not give him a blank cheque. He added that if Seales was more objective instead of castigating people he might make money.

Speaking at a government press briefing, he said that Seales had approached him with a proposal to undertake the government’s communication and public relations work, but Bush said that the government had asked him to be more specific about his offer as it appeared he was asking for a blank cheque. As a result of the fact that government had not offered him work yet, Bush suggested Seales was using the pages of his newspaper to “castigate” or push government into a corner to force them to use his services.

Bush said the editorial was wrong and his tactic was not going to work. “He needs to be objective and give the country confidence in him then he will make money,” the leader of government business said. “He is not going to brow beat us just because we can’t give him an open check.” Bush said Seales could not threaten anyone by saying he had “plenty ink” as he would not put up with it.

“If the media can’t police themselves then remedies will have to be found. This administration will not be blackmailed by any two-bit hustler who, when you do not pay what he is demanding, messes up the store. This kind of hoodlumism won’t be tolerated,” Bush added. He said that for far too long Seales had gotten away with threatening and brow beating people with his “ink” and he was in the habit of castigating people or loving them when he choose to suit his own ends.

Bush said that he felt that he and the government in general had a good and cordial relationship with the local press and that was what he would expect. “We are fair in answering questions,” he said. “If I can be reached I will talk to the press but we have country to run and there is no fair and honest reason for the attack 13 July.”

He explained that Seales had taken him and the government to task over communication saying that when he, as LoGB, had returned from his overseas travels he had made “impulsive commitments and announcements”, which had not been properly cleared, such as the pensions holiday, and that there was poor communication between ministries. Bush said it was an out and out lie. “I make no statements without being briefed by the relevant ministry,” he said and reminded everyone what he had actually said at the last briefing.

He said there was a need to be fair and tolerant as the media was not on the moon on 20 May and that the press knew full well what problems the new government now faced on the financial front.  He noted that the television and radios had to be licensed and were policed that way but that there was nothing policing print media. He said Seales was a wild card, using the type of abuse that he did and it had gone on too long with no one speaking out about it.

He did say he was in favour of the media forming some kind of association through which they would set standards and police themselves as he said this happened in other countries. “For years I have asked for something like this to happen and I hope something will as there needs to besome ethics and some standards.” He noted some were following guidelines while others were just doing what they wanted.

Asked if it was criticism that concerned him or just the way Seales was behaving, he said that the government was not afraid of criticism as it was to be expected. Bush added that by listening to criticism he had learned a lot, especially over the last four years and that was why he was back in office, but he said criticism must be fair and free of bias. “We cannot be blackmailed,” he added.

He said that Seales was trying to imply that the new government did not have a cohesive communication strategy and thought by doing that he would brow beat the government into using his communication firm, but he said the government intended to return to the centralisation of government communications with GIS. He said communication was not going to be pulled apart by evil devices.

Continue Reading

Fire destroys vacation condo in Cayman Kai

(CNS): In what the fire service says appeared to be an early morning electrical fire, a condo at Island House in Cayman Kai, Rum Point, has been destroyed and a second one damaged. Cayman Islands Fire Service (CIFS) officials received a report from 911 at 11:54 pm on Wednesday, 16 July, and two fire vehicles were dispatched from the Frank Sound Fire Station, arriving at the scene by 12:07am, and a third truck was dispatched from Central Fire Station in George Town. The condos were both empty and no one was hurt during the blaze.

When fire officers reached the scene they found that Unit 10 was engulfed with flames and they worked until the fire appeared to be extinguished by 1:08am, but three hours later, while standing-by at the scene, the fire reignited in the unit’s roof.

Dooly McLaughlin explained that it is not uncommon for a fire to reignite as even when a burning house is saturated there can be a hidden hot spot where the water didn’t penetrate. He said that waswhy fire officers stay on the scene watching even after a fire may appear to have been extinguished. “We often re-visit the scene of a fire several hours later as well to make sure that there are no more hot spots that could reignite,” he added,explaining that despite the water it can take hours and hours for a burned house to cool.

He confirmed that it did appear to be an electrical fire but investigations were on going.

The fire has extensively damaged unit 10 and also caused minor damage to the neighbouring unit 11.

For more information on preventing and detecting residential fires, contact McLaughlin at 244-3914.

Continue Reading

Scott-Roberts murder trial delayed

(CNS): The trial of Kirkland Henry (27) and Larry Ricketts (25) for the murder of Estella Scott-Roberts (left) in October 2008, which was scheduled to start on 3 August, has been postponed until January 2010. Following several months of problems regarding local representation and legal aid certificates for the two accused men, it was confirmed in Grand Court today (17 July) that Lee Freeman from the law firm of Priestley’s has gone on record as Ricketts’ local counsel and Ben Tonner remains as the local representative for Henry. Both men, who are Jamaican nationals, have also now been granted legal aid for overseas QCs for the trial.

Over the last few weeks, both Justice Alex Henderson and Justice Leighton Pusey have raised their concerns in court about the problems of finding counsel to represent the two men and in turn securing legal aid certificates. Earlier this week, the court was told that Scott Wilson had expressed an interest in representing Ricketts, who has been without counsel for months, but was unable to act as his firm had stated it was no longer prepared to work on legal aid matters because of the consistent and protracted delay in receiving payment.

However, with counsel now secured for both men and legal aid granted, both Tonner and Freeman will be seeking to instruct overseas QCs as lead counsel. The trial, which is expected to last three weeks, is now set to commence on 26 January 2010.

Ricketts and Henry were arrested on 27 October, some two weeks after the shocking discovery of Scott-Robert’s body in her own burnt out car in the dykes area of Barkers in West Bay.

Both men are charged with robbery, abduction and murder, while Henry is also charged with an additional count of rape.

Continue Reading

Lawyers sum up their cases

(CNS): Following the defence’s decision not to call any witnesses on its behalf, both legal teams spent the eighth day of the trial of William Martinez-McLaughlin for murder presenting their closing speeches. Solicitor General Cheryl Richards first put the Crown’s case against McLaughlin, pointing to the testimony of the principal witness, Jason Hinds, and the forensic evidence given by expert witnesses. She was followed by defence lead counsel, Mark Tomassi, who focused on the possibility that the Crown’s case was flipped and that Hinds not McLaughlin was the man who struck the fatal blows to Brian Rankine-Carter. (Left: defence counsel Mark Tomassi and Nick Dixie)

The jury heardRichards place the last seven days of evidence in context as she pointed out why the Crown believed Jason Hinds’ testimony and why they believed the forensic evidence also pointed against McLaughlin.  She reminded the jury of Hinds’ testimony that McLaughlin was “chopping and chopping” at Rankine and had even had to stop to catch his breath during what Hinds had described as a nightmare. Richards noted how Hinds had taken responsibility for the van from the very start and given a more truthful account of the night when he first encountered the police, implicating himself immediately. Voluntarily showing the police where he had buried his clothes, he had given an account that also found him guilty of the crime of accessory after the fact. She asked the jury, if Hinds was lying why he would not lie to further remove himself from the crime.

With Hinds and McLaughlin both at the scene, she said it was McLaughlin who the Crown believed was the man who committed the murder.

She warned the jury to be careful of the distractions thrown up by the defence and reminded them that suggestions were not evidence. Richards pointed to the forensic evidence placing McLaughlin very “close, closer and closest”  to the body at the time Rankine was bleeding, including his boots recovered from bushes in East End and the hat found at the scene which conclusively belonged to him.

The solicitor general noted that most of the blood in the van was on the passenger side where McLaughlin was and that Rankine’s blood on his wallet and belt.

She said that despite the suggestions of the defence, the clothes that Hinds had admitted to burying, which he wore on the night, were not covered in blood and, as the expert witnesses had said, there were some transfer patterns consistent with Hinds’ story that he had made attempts to pull McLaughlin away from Rankine.

Holding up the t-shirt, she asked the jury if it could possibly be the garment worn during the administration of the 48 wounds to Rankine. She asked the jury to think hard and ask what makes sense as she said it was easy to throw mud and for innuendo to take the place of hard facts. Richards conceded that mistakes had been made in the investigation by the police but there was no evidence of collusion or corruption. In the end, when the machete found at Hinds’ house was tested it had no blood on it. She did caution the jury about Hinds’ evidence as she explained that escaping murder charges was a powerful incentive to lie. However, she said if they accepted his evidence then there could be no doubt of McLaughlin’s guilt.

When defence counsel Mark Tomassi took to his feet, he presented another possibility for the jury to consider. He suggested that the roles were reversed and that the police, for whatever reason, had taken Hinds as the innocent man and his client as the murderer when it could have been the other way around. “Why could the case not be looked at the other way around?” he asked.

He reminded the jury that if they were in any doubt at all they must return a not guilty verdict. He pointed to his suggestions of a conspiracy, the missing machete, the conflicting police stories and what he suggested was the special treatment of Hinds. He accused the police of not doing all they could to really investigate Rankine’s murder and said that, while one cannot weight the importance of someone’s life, the police did that.

Whether it was “a cock up or a stitch up”, Tomassi said the results were the same that the police had not investigatedthe case properly.

He said the jury must try the defendant on the evidence and they did not have to come up with their own homespun theory. He said that, while there were many unanswered questions, there would be no more evidence to come. If the jury did not believe Hinds, and he had undoubtedly lied, then they could not find his client guilty, he said. Recounting what had allegedly happened, he suggested to the jury that it must be obvious it was all about drugs and that Hinds had lied about his drug use.

Tomassi said the presence at the scene of the crime was not enough to convict McLaughlin, as both men had gone to the car park in McField Lane and both men had got out of the van. The presence of blood on McLaughlin’s shoes was not enough as it was impossible to say how much blood was on Hinds’ shoes as he had cleaned them. he said.

Tomassi told the jury that he believed the evidence pointed the other way round, but without the resource such as those available to the RCIPS, he and Nick Dixie, his junior counsel, could not prove it. He said that once the jury found that they could not believe Hinds against a backdrop of misadventure, incompetence or worse, they could not find his client guilty.

Justice Alex Henderson adjourned the case until Monday morning, when he will offer his directions to them before they begin their deliberations, he told the jury.

Continue Reading