Martin found not guilty
(CNS): Full story update: — Following the not guilty verdict this afternoon, former MLA Lyndon Martin said words could not express how he felt now that the ordeal was over. Despite the best efforts of Operation Tempura, he said that the justice system in the Cayman Islands prevailed and it was still fair and strong in its service to the people of the Cayman Islands. He said it was a good day for Cayman as well as for himself, as he said, in the words of one of the Crown’s own witnesses, what he did had always been with the best intentions on behalf of the Cayman people. Martin was cleared of both of the charges against him — doing acts intending to pervert the course of public justice and falsely accusing Anthony Ennis of a crime.
Thanking his friends, family, legal team as well as the judicial system and media for its fair reporting Martin also offered his apologies to Deputy Commissioner Anthony Ennis and his family for the hardships they had suffered, who he said, like him, were innocent victims. He said he would also like to appeal to the Cayman people to consider wisely where they spend their fifty cents for a newspaper each morning and think if Desmond Seales deserved their hard earned money.
The former Sister Islands’ political representative had insisted throughout the long ordeal that his allegations against Ennis had all come as a result of what he had been told and led to believe by Seales, the editor in chief of Cayman Net News and Martin’s former employer. As Martin chose not to take the stand during the trial, only a limited amount of what Seales did to lead Martin to such a conclusion regarding the deputy commissioner was revealed. He has maintained since his arrest that at the time he had very good reasons to believe that Seales’ source was Ennis, although he acknowledged that there was no truth to the allegations several months ago.
Asked if he would be taking civil action, Martin stated that he had been thinking hard and taking advice about that and if it were possible to make Martin Bridger and the Operation Tempura team pay for his ordeal he would. “It would be unlikely that the people who are really responsible for what happened to me would pay; we know it would be the people of the Cayman Islands that suffer and that would be unfair.”
Martin said the impact on his life had been tremendous and enormously stressful. “They locked me up and took away my liberty; they took me from my children; they accused me of a crime when all I believed I was doing was my civic duty, and for two years I have lived with this ordeal,” he said. “It also undermined my political campaign at the General Election and gave fuel for others to use against me.”
Martin, however, said he was delighted to be able to go back to Cayman Brac this weekend and be with his children with the trial no longer hanging over him and his family.
Category: Headline News
Congratualtions on your "win", Lyndon and Burmon,and my sympathies to you for what you and your families have gone through.
From one, who with your family, helped to teach you,
Benjy
Finally!!! A countryman wins one!! I was wondering if we were on a road to making everyone else win and walk away with some more of our money, but kudos to the JURY – unna ROCK!!!
Lydon go get your cheque bobo, you deserve it. Gov. Jack, call up REGINA and get a cheque for the man, bcuz you are the reason we are in this investigation and racking up millions of wasted spending which we have no control over.
Lydon get ur money too!!!!!
I feel very sad to write this, but Lyndon you should try to get your million too.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
Lyndon I realize that you have the country’s good at heart (and always have) but you need restitution as well. Whomever has paid for the others should pay for you too.
It would be a shame if the Cayman Islands Government does not seek to recover every cent of this from Her Majesty (she has plenty) and everything that was done was done on the orders of Her Majesty.
The decisions about these cases, including and particularly this one, being prosecuted were not taken by our Legal Dept but rather by the Governor himself and the Tempura Team. Thats why the AG nor anyone else from the Legal Department were actually the "Prosecuting Attorney" and why Stuart Jack brought in another QC at great expense to the country to prosecute the case. If this was left to our Legal Dept it would not have been prosecuted.
Yes this was and is a conspiracy by the UK…..what other reason would they have for bypassing our Legal Dept and AG.
An Insider !!!
Insider – you should know better – in that no prosecution can be brought before the Cayman court system other than on behalf of the Attorney General. If that is not the case, i suggest that the powers that be need to make this known to the public at large. And they need to do this quick-o-clock!!!!
You have not been paying attention. While Operation Tempura originally got advice from the Govt. Legal Dept. it was subsequently determined by the AG that they should get independent advice with regard to warrants, arrests, charges and prosecutions. First this was Andre Mon Desir and then when he left the Islands it was Martin Polaine.
i suggest you get a copy of the court documents and refer to the case name such and such – v- such and such that should take care of this issue!!
Justice system
The Cayman Islands Legal Department decides which cases to persue and have merit. That is run by Caymanians. This is not a conspiracy. The UK has plenty of stupid cases that go to court in the UK and plenty of political scandals. A fair judicial system is one in which justice is equal to all and available to all at a fair and reasonable price.
Do you think Stuart Jack would cause problems for Cayman and yet live here for so long? It seems to me he loves the islands.
Racism and nationalism
Will everyone please stop being so bloody sensitive about racism. If you talk about racism and build it up with inflammatory statements, it sticks around, makes headlines and gets worse. Get on with your life whatever shade of colour your skin is.
Talking about racism, is not racism, but keep it in perspective. There are multi-racial relationships all around us and many in Cayman. Does it make a difference if your mum is an Inuit and your dad half Russian, half Chinese and you want to date a muslim Nigerian? No.
We are all just people. Does it make me different because I was born on one side of an immaginary line on a map and am Autrian instead of Italian? No.
Does it make me different because I speak another langage. No.
I am white and sometimes feel more relaxed and comfortable around people with a different skin colour, or find it more interesting to live amongst people with a different heritage, culture and way of life to me. I simply see people and use the same standards to form my opinions about people of other nationalities, races, religions or with any other difference to me, as I use to judge white, English people like me. If you’re cool, you’re cool. If you’re a plonker, you’re a plonker. And if you care about what nationality I am, what language I currently speak, or where my skin colour fits in on a Dulux Paint colour card, then you are a plonker. That’s all there is to it.
Stick to the subjects you know.
"Do you think Governor Jack…".
How old are you – six?
Correction Scrooge. Our Justice systam is run by Jamaicans not Caymanians.
"It seems that this was some bad advice from Mr. Mon Desir "
yeh but surprise surprise he has left the islands already too!
You go Quincy!
Tell um how it go! Obviously the two of them missing the point of what you are saying. People will always be jealous of you cuz you tell it straight and worst cuz u a BRACKA!
Lyndon, I am happy for you and may god continue to bless you and your family. As they all can see, you are looking out for the peopel of these islands.
This is all a conspiracy by the FCO through their local Cayman Islands Representative (Governor) to destablise our country and wreck our financial services industry.
It started with this undercover investigation which the Governor took control of and removed Kernohan.
Then there was the Tucker Commission of Enquiry into the allegations against Minister Clifford even though former Governor Dinwiddy had already written to Clifford to confirm that he had done nothing wrong……and wouldn’t you think that Clifford or anyone else exposing corruption should be encouraged. Look at what happened recently in TCI…..the Enquiry should have been into the corruption itself not the exposing of it !!!!
So then Jack had his desired Tucker Report against Clifford and Tempura was proceeding nicely and making it appear like there was widespread corruption in the RCIP which we have yet to see one shred of evidence of !!!! They suspended Kernohan and Jones and arrested Rudolph Dixon and Burman Scott. Burman Scott has since been cleared and has sued too !!!
Then they hyped up the anti with respect to Tempura and suddenly there is the arrest of Judge Henderson on suspicion of an offence which isn’t even arrestable and they arrested Lyndon Martin for a "burglary" which the Chief Justice of this country told them was not a "burglary" nor was it any offence at all !!!
So now Jack and crew has begun to paint a picture of mismanagement, corruption in the RCIP and in the Judiciary.
Then Jack suspends Justice Levers and appoints a Tribunal of Enquiry to investigate what turned out to be nothing more than internal squabbles at the Courts Office. This we discovered some $3.5 M later….and we’re still counting the bills for that one.
Folks a credible Judiciary is the heart of our Financial Services Industry and this is what the UK is after.
Do not be fooled any longer Cayman. This was never about Minister Clifford, Lyndon Martin, Rudolph Dixon, Burman Scott, Judge Henderson or Judge Levers….this has always been about the UK and EU’s mission to destroy the Cayman Islands.
The Tucker Commission of Enquiry was engineered to discredit Minister Clifford and return McKeeva to power which explains why there was no Commission of Enquiry into the actual corruption itself.
This was because the UK knew that McKeeva isn’t wise enough to "get it" and he would be ideal as an "unaware accomplice" and that along with what they had already done to us, they only needed to put documents, such as the letter the FCO sent McKeeva recently into his hands and he would read it to the world as he did at the Ritz recently. That has done exactly what the FCO expected….prompted stories around the world about the Cayman Islands being bankrupt and further undermined confidence in our jurisdiction as an Offshore Financial Center that is competing with London.
Now there is a global media frenzy, created by our very own "Fearless Leader" and he is blaming that on the PPM too. Give me a break for God’s sake !!!
Wake up Cayman. Mothers have murdered their children before !!!
We are too passive a people. We should have demanded this Governor’s return a long time ago because while this is a UK initiative and he is simply their current agent, that would have sent a very clear message to them that the people of the Cayman Islands are not sleeping !!!!!!!!
So Mr. Martin was found innocent…which means there was truth to his story….which means there was a high level leak in the RCIPS…which means an investigation should have taken place…..
Can you possibly follow my logic? You cannot have it both ways…not if you have ANY sense that is.
Remember the smoke screen that was used in the Brian Gibbs incident? I am not defending what he did, but because everyone concentrated on what he did, the other facts of possible illegal activities of the other people involved was forgotten.
The paranoia you display is used time and time again by the Attorneys in a slight of hand trick to distract you from following the true facts of this case, the bases of which everyone appears to have very conveniently forgotten.
Remember that back in February this year then Minister Clifford went public in requesting that the UK government recall Governor Jack and replace him with a new Governor because of the Tempura fiasco and the other ill-conceived investigations and enquiries. He estimated at the time that the unnecessary Levers enquiry alone would cost at least CI$3M. It has laready exceeded that.
Clifford said that it seemed clear to him that all of this was a conspiracy to destablise our country and that it was time that we as Caymanians, regardless of our political affiliations, stood up to what was an obvious mission to destroy our country. Unfortunately none of Clifford’s colleagues backed him at the time, perhaps because they were more concerned about their own political careers than their country.
This was proof again that whenever it is necessary Clifford is prepared to stand alone on issues that negatively affect our country.
The passage of time has proven Clifford was right and with the further passage of time he will also be proven right in relation to the corruption that he exposed.
Congrats Lyndon. The Legal Department would never have prosecuted this case under normal circumstances because no offence had been committed but they had to in your case because if they didn’t it would have been an acknowledgement that this entire issue was just what Clifford said it was, a conspiracy to destablise our country.
Now this will be the ultimate test for the UDP. Will they demand that the UK REIMBURSE the Cayman Islands Government for this mess that has cost our country over CI$15M so far and the bills are still mounting !!!!
To Governor Jack – No one in Cayman will cry if you do the right thing and leave our shores before your scheduled departure in November. Clearly you will go down in our history as the worst Governor ever to set foot on our shores !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Legal Department would never have prosecuted this case under normal circumstances because no offence had been committed but they had to in your case because if they didn’t it would have been an acknowledgement that this entire issue was just what Clifford said it was, a conspiracy to destablise our country."
So, who does the Legal department represent "the people of the cayman Islands!"
and it was the Legal department Mon desir that gave the wrong advice in the first place!!
and he has conveniently left the civil service too!
Mon Desir was selected to give the advice specifically because he already had left the Govt. Legal Dept.
I am glad that Mr. Martin has had his day in court to vindicate his name; because, those charges were serious – to pervert the course of Justice. However, I equally happy for him, my caymanian brother, for standing up to be counted and reporting what he thought was an unethical (at the least) collabration. Essentially, he could be termed the "whistle blower". That begs the question: should not we seek to put legislation in place to "protect" then whistle blower? At the very least there would be clear wording to guide or interpret by the police and attorney general chambers when looking at similar cases in the future.
All roads lead to Desmond Seales…
Why has this guy been taken seriously as a newspaper publisher by so many people for so long?
For the sake of Cayman, let’s all hope he soon retreats to where he belongs: selling used cars.
Dear Proud Caymanian and Knal N. Domp.
I always post my real name and never a pseudonym or "Anonymous" whenever I make a comment. Can you or anyone else for that matter say the same? For the record: I do not hate Caucasians or white-skinned people. Please don’t miss the point. I have been accused of betraying the coloured race because I have dated only white women in the past. I respect all people and their skin colour. I have been spreading unity, love and togetherness all my life. Where have you been? Have you not read my essays and attended BCTC events? I guess you don’t know who I am. Get to know me, then judge me. That’ll be fine.
My point only is many native Caymanians are oppressed in the Cayman Islands. I am hated by my Caymanian people for being a respecter and friend to the foreigner and hated by the expat living in Cayman for being pro Caymanian. I just love it!!
I am despised by some for hating whites so they claim and despised by others for not being black conscious. I am one of the few in the Cayman Islands who celebrate Black History Month in February and Emancipation Day on August 1st. I work and advise white people. White people continue to advise me and have played a tremendous role in my success story as have black people. I say thanks and God Bless to ALL.
Lets focus on the real issue… THE FUTURE OF THE CAYMAN ISLANDS. Not only is/was Lyndon Martin in court to face a jury, so is Cayman — if you know what I mean.
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Quincy Brown
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Quincy,
I don’t hate you or have any ill feelings toward you what so ever, exactly the opposite, I have respect for your transparency and your love for your country.
Difficulty with some people isn’t a question of skin color rather it is a question of intelligence and a thought process which threatens some people.
Knowledge and education is the great social equalizer.
Good response, Quincy. Don’t let anyone silence you from speaking the truth by calling you names.
We don’t need cayman net news and their bias articles anymore. We have CNS 😀
Ohh Quincy Brown… blaming everything on the whiteman is getting so old.. its like the old cliche; to the man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail !! pound.. pound.. pound… Rise above the petty discrimination talk and use your god given gift of voice to spread the good news of unity, love and togetherness… something that these fair islands were founded on.
Come on Quincy.. step up to the plate.
PS.. Congrats Lindon… daily we see the many sides of justice.. good, bad.. and indefferent…
The central theme of the case was that Desmond Seales told his staff that he was well connected with the politicians, the criminals, and the police. He conveyed the immage that Ennis was his source in the police, as testified by the crown key witness John Evans.
Out of concern for the Cayman Islands, the words of John Evans, Lyndon Martin reported this to the authorities for investigation.
Investigation proved the allegations as false, but the court found that Lyndon had every reason to believe it to be true becasue Desmaond Seales told him and told John Evans that it was the case.
It was revealed in court that Lyndon Martin was arrested, detained for 15 days, deprived of food and that his family was initially denied access to him nor would the police even acknowledge his custody.
Lyndon Martin chose not to take the stand as he felt that the prosecution had not made a case for him to answer to.
Desmond Seales has been at the center of all local controvercies in the Cayman Islands for the past 40 years including the recent Clifford Enquiry, Levers Enquiry and now this one. It is time that he is stood up to. I join with Lyndon Martin in encouraging a national demonstration against him by not purchasing his CAYMAN NOT NEWS.
He has demonstrated his lack of interest in the long term prosperity of this country and supporting him with your fifty cents each morning is assisting him to destroy these islands.
It is understood that the staff of Cayman Net News have not been paid for 6 weeks, his pension contributions have not been paid, his rent is behind by six months and Cayman Airways will be stopping the carrying of his paper again becasue of financial reasons.
hear hear!!
All of this is down to Seales and his rag of a newspaper. If there isn’t enough evidence to go after him for the costs, everyone is morally duty bound to stop buying and advertising in the Net News.
Also shouldn’t the Crown be prosecuting Seales? At the very least, we’ve got two witnesses (Martin and Evans) who have already testified that Seales was boasting that Ennis was "his boy" in the RCIPS and was leaking him confidential information… sounds very much like falsely accusing another of a crime…
To: All of this is down to Seales and his rag of a newspaper. If there isn’t enough evidence to go after him for the costs, everyone is morally duty bound to stop buying and advertising in the Net News. Also shouldn’t the Crown be prosecuting Seales? At the very least, we’ve got two witnesses (Martin and Evans) who have already testified that Seales was boasting that Ennis was "his boy" in the RCIPS and was leaking him confidential information… sounds very much like falsely accusing another of a crime…
EXACTLY!!
Boycott Net News immediately!
Obvious this is a man for his country. To even say he knows it unfair for the people to suffer for a law suite means he has at least stopped for a moment to consider the Caymanian people (wish more "politicians’ would do the same)
Net News? Sorry, we support CNS now… unfortunately it is C&W that gets my 50 cents and not CNS but may their dedication to bringing the news (truthful news) pay off.
God bless you Lyndon, CNS & Cayman
Congrats Lyndon! I’m so glad this whole MESS is finally over! I called mom to tell her but she’d already spoken with your dad! I’m so happy for you and your family. I know you all didn’t need this added stress at a time like this! I’m happy for you and I will continue to pray for you and your family that God will work more miracles in your family! GOD BLESS YOU ALL ALWAYS!!!!
go deh pim pim. Not news is a joke.
Ok every one here is not seeing the culprit, Net news, Now I agree with Lyndon, dont waste your 50cents on this wanna be paper. I never have
Thank God justice has prevailed.
Uk keystone cops, gotcha.
Congrats on being found "not guilty" Lyndon!! It would be good if you could get $1.6 million CI dollars for all the trouble. But remember… the country is broke and having to borrow money now as it is. Besides, even if you did sue—you still wouldn’t get the amount mentioned above because you are not a white man from the Mother Country, Canada or the USA. You are a University Educated Coloured Native of Las Turtugas….
Born Caymanians and non white Caymanians can’t sue and win!?! Or can they?
———————
Quincy Brown
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PS. IF CNS should publish this–I’d be surprised.
What a disgraceful post. Has this man any legal qualifications to make these inflammatory statements on a rational basis or is it just prejudice that is being shown here?
You don’t need a legal qualification to have an opinion, just as you don’t need a legal qualification to disagree with his opinion.
Quincy honey, you should be ashamed of yourself, for one so talented! Closet racist or have you always been prone to resentment over the colour of your skin? Tsk, tsk! Keep this up and I for one will have to give up coming to Gimme Story…
So when you identify racial injustice that makes you a racist? By your standards Martin Luther King, Jr. was also a racist.
Dear Knal N. Domp,
I and others (who probably wont admit it)—were brain washed by a system that said being Black, Negro or darkskinned was bad and evil. Skin colour, hair type and nose type determined who you were and what class system you fell into and ultimately what you would become. The family last name also played a MAJOR part. This same system suggested that we love Jesus and follow Jesus who is a white man, blue eyed with long blond hair. That was the system of the day when I was a child. Should we now debate this? Why are so many Caymanian young people turning away from Christianity (I am Christian) and looking toward Rasta, New Age or Atheism? I just love the study of sociology!!
Today I still follow Jesus…and have sincere respect and love for Her Majesty the Queen who was appointed by God. This is what I was taught to believe.
———————-
Quincy Brown
———————-
GimmiStory is a great family storytelling show. Don’t stop going.
Quincy,
People will bash you because they can’t deal with the truth. For many, the truth is very uncomfortable and every word you say is true. Thanks for having guts.
The prophet speaks the truth.
People listen listen up to Quincy he speaks the truth. Also he should have also said that it is our own Caymanians who work the hardest to keep our own Caymanians down.
Caymanian society had become a fractured society divided amongst itself where messages are ignored and messengers are killed.
Preach prophet preach.
‘Coloured’?
Coloured in the South African sense of mixed race and not derogatory.
Correct decision,on the evidence presented but why wasn’t Martin Bridger called as a witness?
How many times will the prosecution in the Cayman Islands look foolish in the eyes of the country and of the world. What the country needs desperately is for a smart Caymanian who has a desire to clean up the country to become a great trial lawyer and bump one of the foreign prosecutors and get some of these crooks to spend some actual jail time.
Congrats Lyndon!
SUE DEM YES!
Isn’t it time that Jack had something to say? How many more times will we have to go to this expense. he needs to apologise to the people of this country before he leaves! November can’t come fast enough! Gather up your green iguanas and wild chickens and let’s ensure they are all safely on that British Airways flight with Jack! Hope he never comes back here ever again!
Why do we have to wait until November? Can’t we the people of Cayman send this useless B—–d packing now?? Why must we always be so docile? That’s what has gotten us into our mess; we the docile arawaks lay under our cocnut trees napping while the Caribs plundered our shores and devoured us whole!
Congrats Lyndon!
Here comes another lawsuit!
Without raising any points in respect of this trial, just because some is found not guilty does not give rise to the right to bring a lawsuit. This is a misperception. Also often such lawsuits are a disaster for the Plaintiff/acquitted party as it often involves a determination of issues related to the alleged wrongdoing tried to the civil standard before a judge, especially as there is not really the option in criminal trials of the accused not giving evidence.
You make a valid point but it is not really applicable to this case. You are right that where the individual in question is the defendant in both the criminal case and civil case they can have opposite outcomes, notably the trials of O.J. Simpson. That is not the case here. It seems that this was some bad advice from Mr. Mon Desir as there was no clear evidence that Martin did not believe in the truth of his allegations at the time he made them.
That was a certainty!…
It’s very difficult to prove what someone really believes and if he did believe that there was something going between Seales and Ennis, based on the disinformation fed to him, then it’s a waste a time and many millions to bother bringing him to court…
So "Operation Tempura" shall now be renamed "Operation Expensive Fiasco", the goal of which was always to discredit the Cayman Police and Judiciary in the eyes of the world, thanks to Perfidious Albion’s hidden agenda…
Now, I expect that another million will be spent when Martin sues for false arrest, which is clearly the case here and government pays his legal fees…
This is at least $15 million down the drain in total, a bill that the UK should be paying if it wasn’t so broke…
MORE $$$$ DOWN THE DRAIN. AND I’M SURE ANOTHER LAWSUIT ON THE WAY…….
Not a huge surprise. Based on what evidence was reported to have been offered in court even the janitor in a lawyer’s office would have known not to go forward with this case.
Martin’s lawsuit against the government will be the next headline. Then we’ll end up paying him millions as well.
Jack and Operation Tempura need to borrow a line from Julius Caesar and say " I came to Cayman, I saw a prosperous Cayman, I destroyed Cayman". If Jack had any shame after yet another Tempura debacle he would resign and attempt to repay then many many millions he has cost these islands
Another Costly Fishing Expedition,
I would like to congratulate Mr. Lyndon on being found not guilty of the charges. The inept investigators and others have publicly tried to smear his name, but rest assured his will to fight on has not been deterred. Hopefully the "powers to be" will reach an out of court settlement with Mr. Lyndon and not subject the Government to any further unnecessary expenses.
Sign Me,
Hard to break the Spartan spirit!
I guess this means we are in for another law suit.
I KNEW IT, I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN !!!!
I wonder what Stuart Jack, Martin Bridger and all of his other cronies both from the UK and Cayman are saying now !!!
Frankly speaking, they all should be S – – – with their own S – – – !!!!
Through it all Lyndon has stood strong and tall; he has maintained his innocence throughout and always said that he did what he thought was right and his civil duty. He did what the police ask us to do – report suspicious activities to them. Never have I heard that you had to know without a shadow of a doubt that what you see or belive to be happening is an indisputable FACT. I thought that was the job of the law enforcement – to investigate and then prove or disprove as the case may be.
I think this is the reason why the general public hesitates to report things to the police.
I am happy for Lyndon and the victory for Cayman as a whole. I also empathize with Deputy Comm. Ennis, who I feel was also a victim of the same evil and devious person’s delusional condition.
The unfortunate thing in this whole entire mess, is that theAgent who has been stationed and operational in our midst for the past 40 years remains UNTOUCHABLE.
That my fellow countrymen is the real TRADGEDY. And if Lyndon sues and gets money for his hardships and the unfariness of this then he DESERVES it. Surely his life also has a worth. It should not be reserved only for the foreign……INVESTOR!