Archive for April, 2014
Ex top cop payoff to be buried in 2014/15 budget
(CNS): Although the settlement between government and the former police commissioner who was sacked during the controversial Operation Tempura internal police probe is currently a state secret, the parliament’s finance committee may be able to shed light on the amount next month. According to officials from the ministry of home affairs the payment to Stuart Kernohan will be coming from the 2014/15 budget set to be before the legislative committee in May. This means the cash will be buried somewhere in a line item and questioning by MLAs during the usual probe over the allocation of public funds may help determine how much more the tax payer has been force to cough up as a result of the bungled investigation.
CNS Filed an FOI request about the budgeting for the payment which was announced at the end of last month and as a result of the home affairs ministry not holding documents they confirmed via email that the money would be paid from the forth coming 2014/15 budget.
As a result the pay-off, which is estimated at around $600,000, far less than original speculation that it was in the millions, will be part of a line item entry in the home affairs ministry’s budget and savvy MLAs should be able to detect the approximate amount. While it may be combined with other payments questioning of the premier, who is the minister for home affairs and his chief office Eric Bush may lead to a reasonable guesson how much the public purse stumped up for the mistakes of the former governor, Stuart Jack as well as others associated with the discredited internal RCIPS probe.
Kernohan, a British national, was sacked while suspended from duty, when he refused to return to the Cayman Islands having gone back to the UK as a result of his late father’s then ill-health. Kernohan refused based on a catalogue of reasons relating to how the investigation was being conducted and what have since emerged as serious flaws in communication between the parties which still remain in contention.
The main issue surrounds Kernohan’s insisted that the his entry into Cayman Net News to look for evidence of alleged corruption between the late proprietor Desmond Seals and a high ranking police officer, by two reporters on the paper in collusion with the RCIPS, was authorized by the governor at the time, Stuart Jack as well as the overseas security advisor Larry Covington and the attorney general, Samuel Bulgin.
Kernohan has always stated that he had documentary evidence of this though it has been denied by the FCO officials.
Smelly garbage trails due to rain, poor equipment
(CNS): Trails of smelly and noxious water from local garbage trucks are due to rain water in the garbage and problems with broken seals on garbage trucks officials have said in a statement of apology to its customers. Although the director of the environmental health department that is responsible for rubbish said his engineers and mechanics are attempting to prevent trucks from leaking he said the department is also exploring the standardization of garbage bins with attached lids as well as a public awareness campaign to encourage people to keep a lid on their rubbish. Urging people to cover their bins especially in the rainy season he said environmental health was doing its best to mitigate leaks.
Responding to a letter of complaint printed in the Caymanian Compass recently from a Roger M. Davies who was concerned about the smelly trails coming from rubbish trucks Roydell Carter the Environmental health boss issued a detailed statement explaining how the leaching from the trucks occurs but which pointed the finger at the public for their failure to keep their garbage dry.
“Residential garbage trucks, which are used to service houses and some small businesses, are all equipped with a drain attached to the base of the truck’s compactors. There should not be any leaking from the trucks as these drains have sealed plugs, and optimally, residential waste collected from the public should be dry and with minimum water content,” he said in the statement.
But in heavy rain water accumulates in open rubbish bins which is transferred to trucks which squeeze out the water as the garbage is compacted. Although the sealed plugs underneath the compactors should prevent the water leaking but if the seal is damaged or there is some much in the hopper of the truck water will spill out.
For more information contact the DEH at 949-6696.
See full statement below
Appeal court upholds 14 year jail term for dealer
(CNS): A cruise ship worker from St Vincent who was jailed in the Cayman Islands in February 2012 for 14 years after being caught dealing cocaine on the streets of George Town will stay in jail after the Court of Appeal dismissed his application for a reduced sentence. Seaford Laborde, who wasworking on the Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas, was convicted of possessing over 2 pounds of cocaine with intent to supply after he was caught in March 2011 by an undercover cop investigating reports of drug smuggling on cruise ships. Local defence attorney Lucy Organ argued that Laborde’s sentence was excessive as he was a mule rather than a street dealer.
She said that the amounts were also in question because of the purity of the drug, and although he had been caught by an officer, the way the drug was packaged indicated that the cruise ship worker was smuggling rather than selling directly to people. Organ said nothing illegal was found in Laborde’s cabin, such as cutting agents or scales, that would indicate he was a dealer.
Organ said that her client had no previous convictions and had worked aboard the cruise ships for more than 15 years. She pointed out that as a foreign national he was miles away from his family in St Vincent where his wife and children, who cannot visit him, remain.
The lawyer said that the sentence was manifestly excessive because although there were no aggravating circumstances, there were several mitigating ones as she asked for the appeal court to consider dropping the sentence by two years.
However, Organ’s efforts fell on deaf ears and the court dismissed the appeal, upholding the 14 year term, stating that the judges would give their reasons in writing before the end of the current session.
Brac LA sitting too costly
(CNS): Given the austere times that government and the wider community are facing, one MLA believes the decision to hold this week’s legislative sitting in Cayman Brac is too costly. Ezzard Miller said that he will be paying for his own flights to and from the Brac during the three day sitting but will be returning to his district each evening. While the decision by the North Side MLA may reduce the government’s bill for the session by a small amount, he said the overall cost of the trip is likely to be tens of thousands of dollars because of all the ministry civil servants and LA staff, as well as the politicians, that will need to be flown to the Sister Island and accommodated.
Some government members and civil servants began the four day government visit yesterday with a Cabinet meeting there. The Legislative Assembly will open at 10am this morning at the Aston Rutty Centre, where MLAs will deal with a number of bills relating to the financial services sector as well as government motions dealing with indemnity for Cayman Airways board directors and land rezoning, among other issues. Although the session will be recorded and broadcast on Radio Cayman beginning on Wednesday evening, it is understood that the government TV channel will not broadcast the full live proceedings but hope to deliver sound.
With constituents out of work, schools in desperate need of supplies and cash needed for indigents, Miller said that he did not feel comfortable adding, he felt unnecessarily, to the government’s tab for the meeting.
He said the public purse does not pick up the tab for his travelling to George Town from North Side, so if the parliament has temporarily relocated to the Sister Islands then he would cover the costs of that travel too. Miller told CNS that he will be using the Cayman Airways Express service each day to fly to the Brac in the mornings and return to Grand Cayman each evening in order to be in his constituency. Miller felt there was nothing to be gained by the exercise and noted that the country had a very expensive legislative building in George Town that was already under-utilized.
The Cayman Brac sitting is likely to be the last session of this legislative meeting before the parliament reopens next month for the budget meeting. Although the current premier had indicated he was keen to set a legislative timetable for meetings and sittings and made one attempt to publish a schedule, the legislatorskept only one date. Since then no further timetables have been set.
First Shetty patient a local
(CNS):The Shetty hospital has completed its first operation, not on a medical tourist but a Caymanian patient. The very first person to go under the knife at the state-of the-art facility underwent a cardiac procedure Tuesday, which, given its complexity, would in the past have been done off island, hospital officials said. The first patient was operated on by the chief interventional cardiologist and electro-physiologist of the new hospital, Dr Ravi Kishore, and not the world famous Dr Devi Shetty. As a result of patient confidentiality, the hospital was unable to release more but Dr Chandy Abraham, the medical and facility director, said the completed procedure marked a milestone in the history of hospital.
“We are pleased to announce this day has finally arrived and we are now officially delivering the highest level of tertiary-care services and patient care in our new, state-of-the-art facility,” he said. “We are grateful for the hard work of our dedicated doctors and staff who have made it possible for us to reach this historical day.”
As well as the first local patient, the facility director said that the hospital was now welcoming overseas patients this week. “We have started consultations and scheduling of appointments and procedures and are looking forward to further engaging our guests and patients in the future,” Dr Chandy added.
Although the facility has been billed as kick-starting the country’s much anticipated third economic leg of medical tourism, it will also be undertaking further local operations, Dr Chandy stated.
“Health City provides expanded tertiary medical care in the areas of cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, specialty orthopaedics and pulmonology, which negates the need for many Cayman Islands residents to travel to the US for this specialised medical care. Not only does this provide a more cost effective option for treatment but it means local patients can undergo surgery and recovery with the support of their family close by,” the doctor said.
Health City Cayman Islands will provide adult and paediatric and cardiology services, cardiovascular and thoracic surgery, specialty orthopaedics, pulmonology and paediatric endocrinology.
Over the next decade, the hospital will expand to a 2,000-bed facility, and expects to be a JCI (Joint Commission International, USA) accredited facility, providing care in major specialties including neurology, oncology and other cutting edge tertiary care. The complex is also planning a medical university and an assisted-care living community.
ICTA seeks public view on future of local TV
(CNS): The body responsible for regulating TV broadcasting is asking for public input on redefining the future of local television. People are being asked by the ICTA to consider questions on the primary issues, set out in a paper published Tuesday, relating to how local content is delivered and what it means. At present all of the licensed TV providers who charge a subscription to their customers should deliver some local free television but the obligation was written into the licence almost a decade ago. Faced with significant changes in how TV is now provided, the regulator says it needs to be reviewed and asks if it is still even appropriate to require licensees to provide free local programming.
The Information Communication and Technology Authority said it is considering whether the local television service obligation is still fit for purpose and is asking the community to submit thoughts, comments, ideas and general input by 7 May. This will inform the recommendations the regulator will make to the government on amendments to the current licences and the introductionof regulations to govern the TV sector.
The authority is asking first and foremost whether the public believes, given the cost of producing original programming, whether television service licensees should still be obligated to provide any kind of local television service. The regulator said that it is unlikely that any TV service provider would produce local TV programmes without being obligated.
The ICTA is also asking how local content should be defined, if there should be a quality standard by which the content is measured, and if so, what should it be and who would assess whether it meets the standard.
How many hours per day of local content should each licensee provide and when should it be shown, are further questions raised by the ICTA in the paper. The regulator is also asking for input on how much of the local programming should be original and if licensees should be obligated to commission a certain percentage of content from local producers.
Given that most of the TV providers are now utilising the internet or digital technology to provide their programming, how customers and local people received the free local TV also remains open to question.
The ICTA said the discussion about what local television provision means for those living here is an important issue of public interest and urged people to submit their views. The ICTA said it is focused on how the current TV subscription service providers should deliver free local TV, exactly what that local TV should be and whether or not the requirement is still appropriate.
The ICTA said there is currently an obligation on five licensees, Infinity (known as C3), Digicel, LIME, WestTel (also referred to as Logic) and WestStar, to provide some type of "public local television service". Calling for contributions, the ICTA added that review does not cover the general non-local television content provided by those TV licence holders. It also stated that the input paper does not deal with regulation relating to images, the language broadcast, or whether or not the Cayman Islands' current copyright legislation should be amended, as it ducked out of the current broadcast battles between LIME, WestStar and HBO.
All input on the paper, which can be found on the ICTA website here and posted below should be sent in writing to the ICTA by no later than 5pm on 7 May. You can call the ICTA to request a hard copy via post.
Submissions may be e-mailed to consultations@icta.ky or by post to: Information and Communications Technology Authority, P.O. Box 2502, Grand Cayman KY1-1104, CAYMAN ISLANDS.
Hand delivered to Information and Communications Technology Authority, 3rd Floor, Alissta Towers, 85 North Sound Road, Grand Cayman, CAYMAN ISLANDS or faxed to: (345) 945-8284
The authority said all submissions will be posted on its website at www.icta.ky within 5 days of the closing date of this call for input unless such input is considered by the Authority as being confidential.
3 street robberies in 1 night
(CNS): Police are investigating three different street muggings in George Town on Monday night going into Tuesday morning and have apprehended suspects in two of the overnight offences. The night of crime began with a report around 7.30pm when a 56- year-old man suffered cuts and bruises when he was robbed of his jewellery, wallet and passport by two men on Shedden Road. The second incident happened on Dr Roys Drive at about 8:45pm when two teens mugged a security guard outside a bank grabbing his bag and running off. At 12:30am this morning a 23 year old man of a small amount of coins by a robber armed with a knife on the forecourt of Delworth’s Esso Gas station on North Church Street.
The three street robberies come in the wake of a daylight doorstep mugging outside Lakeside Condos on Monday morning in what appears to be another crime wave.
The first of last night's street crimes happened when a Cuban national was set upon by robbers near the Nevlaw Building on Shedden Road at about 7-30pm. No weapons were used, poice said, but the victim was injured and treated at the George Town hospital. Police have made no arrests in that case and are asking anyone who may have witnessed the incident, or who has information that could assist the police is asked to contact Detective Sergeant Charmane Huntley, George Town CID at 949-4222.
Meanwhile, police later apprehended two seventeen year old boys who are currently in custody after they grabbed a bag belonging to a security guard who was on duty outside the Caledonian Bank at around a quarter to nine. The man was uninjured in that incident and police recovered the bag and arrested the two suspects for theft shortly after the incident.
Then at around 12:30am, going into Tuesday morning at Delworth’s Esso Gas station, North Church Street a male resident was robbed at knife point of a few coins which he handed over without injury. When police responded to the incident a 43-year-old male was arrested shortly after on suspicion of robbery and a knife was also recovered by the police. He is also currently in custody at the George Town Police Station.
Anyone who witnessed either of these two incidents or may have information that could assist the police is asked to contact Detective Constable 261 Santo, George Town CID at 949-4222. People with information on these or any other crime in Cayman who wish to remain anonymous can contact CRIME STOPPERS at 800-8477 (TIPS)
Weather delays Cubans bounds for Honduras
(CNS): A boat with fifteen Cuban migrants is currently stuck in Cayman waters as bad weather is delaying their planned journey to Honduras. The vessel is currently understood to be moored off the coast of East End. Officials have not stated the exact location but stated that the authorities were monitoring the boat. Immigration officials said that the latest group to enter Cayman waters, which includes six females and nine men, arrived in the Brac last Saturday evening (5 April). The group headed out to sea later that night, bound for Honduras but arrived off Grand Cayman yesterday at around 2.00pm indicating that inclement weather was hindering their journey.
The migrants have not asked to come ashore and hope to continue on their way once the weather clears as there appears to be no structural damage to their boat.
At present there are 57 Cubans in the Cayman Islands awaiting deportation as none are ever granted asylum. Authorities have detained 40 migrants for processing at the Immigration Detention Centre and there are also 16 on Cayman Brac awaiting transfer to Grand Cayman, while one man who arrived last month remains on the run, having escaped the Fairbanks detention facility in George Town on 27 March.
Getaway car rider evades jail
(CNS): A teenager originally charged with armed robbery was released from jail last week and given a two year probation order, having been convicted of handling stolen goods, despite being apprehended in the getaway vehicle that fled the scene of a robbery. Ordain Lloyd Ebanks was one of four men pursued in a high profile police chase involving the RCIPS helicopter and patrol car following a daylight heist at Chisholm’s supermarket in North Side last September. However, prosecutors went on to drop the armed robbery charges and accepted a plea from the 18-year-old for handling after he admitted touching a packet of cigarettes, which he threw out of car window during the chase.
The plea caused controversy in the court room however, when the original Grand Court judge in the case refused to accept the lesser plea because of previous information supplied by the crown regarding the case as a finding of fact that Ebanks was by no means an innocent by-stander who just happened to get a lift with the robbery getaway driver. Ebanks claimed he only learned about the crime when handed a packet of stolen cigarettes in the vehicle and when he learned they were stolen he threw them out of the car.
During the sentencing of the main protagonist in the daylight hold-up, Courtney Bryan, Justice Charles Quin heard that Ebanks was one of two men who entered the North Side store less than fifteen minutes before the robbery and that he had purchased a patty – described as “casing the joint” in the judge’s sentencing ruling.
A few weeks later when he was presented with Ebanks’ plea for a far lesser offence and claims that he was no longer being charged with having anything to do with the planning or execution of the armed heist, Justice Quin raised his concerns. The judge pointed out that there could not be two different sets of facts about the same event and took the crown to task over the change. He later made the decision to pass the case to another member of the judiciary as he said he was conflicted over the crown’s renewed position.
As a result it was left to Justice Alex Henderson to deal with the sentencing of the lesser offence, and despite the suspicions he raised about Ebanks’ possible greater involvement, he gave the teenager a two year probations order to include a twelve month curfew between 10pm and 6am. Ebanks had already served six months in HMP Northward on remand. He is now the third person convicted and sentenced in the case, in which four men were arrested.
Bryan, who was considered the ring leader and the man who entered the store and stole cash, jewellery, a phone and cigarettes in what was considered a violent robbery, armed with an imitation handgun, received a four year jail term. Then 29-year-old Ian Fernado Ellington received a two year sentence after he was convicted of accessory after the fact as a result of being the getaway drive.
Although he too had originally been charged with robbery, as the crown suspected he was the second man in the store with Ebanks, prosecutors were later to offer no evidence that he did any more than pick up the robbers without knowing what they had done or being part of the plan. However, he was at the wheel during the high profile chase, which was recorded on the RCIPS Air Support Unit video.
Just one of the four people arrested now remains to be dealt with and he is the youngest member of the four arrested in East End when the pursuit finally ended. The 16-year-old admitted his part in the robbery following the arrest but has always denied having a gun.
However, the crown is continuing to pursue that case against the youngster and as a result he will face trial later this month on that one count.
Former fire bosses called out of retirement
(CNS): Two former top fire officers are putting their retirement on hold in order to re-take the helm of the Cayman Islands Fire Service in order to help government stabilize the critical emergency department in the face of more problems. Officials gave little away in a release on Monday about the continuing issues at the CIFS but confirmed that Rosworth McLaughlin is now on extended sick leave. As a result Roy Grant will come back to act as chief fire officer and Kirkland Nixon (left) as strategic advisor for the next three months as government continues to find a new fire boss and fill the vacancies caused by public service cuts.
“During this time, issues of poor communication, command and control as well as strategic planning will all be areas of priority,” said Ministry of Home Affairs Chief Officer Eric Bush, adding that it would give government “time to stabilize” the service.
The former bosses have been called out of retirement in the wake of a review of the Cayman Islands Fire Service conducted in January by Peter Holland, the Chief Fire and Rescue Advisor for England. His report is due in the coming weeks but officials have not yet stated when it will be released to the public.
Craig McCoy, who has served in the Fire Service for 35 years, is also retiring but the date for his departure from an already depleted crew has not been revealed.
Staff shortages, missing overtime pay, poor communication, mis-management and worn out personal safety kit are just some of the issues plaguing the service that were revealed when the UK experts visited Cayman earlier this year