FID prosecutors want CMU corruption trial to press ahead
Published:Saturday | July 16, 2022 | 12:11 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
The prosecution in the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) corruption case involving former Education Minister Ruel Reid and ex-CMU President Professor Fritz Pinnock wants the matter to proceed to trial and will be seeking permission to appeal the Supreme Court’s stay of the proceedings.
Attorney-at-law Hugh Small, who, along with Shawn Steadman Wilkinson, is prosecuting the matter for the Financial Investigations Division (FID) on fiat, yesterday notified the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court that a date for that hearing has been set for September 26.
Justice Courtney Daye last June ordered that the criminal matter against Pinnock and Reid as well as the latter’s wife Sharen and their daughter Sharelle and Brown’s Town Councillor Kim Brown Lawrence be halted pending the outcome of an application for leave for judicial review of the parish court’s decision not to dismiss the charges and to proceed to trial.
Conflict of interest
The decision was made by Chief Parish Judge Chester Crooks, who later recused himself from the matter, claiming there was a conflict of interest as he attended Munro College while Reid was head boy.
But Reid and Pinnock, who contended that given the conflict of interest, the judge should not have heard their application for dismissal of the charges. Through their lawyer, Hugh Wildman, they sought permission to challenge Crooks’ decision via a judicial hearing and were successful.
However, the FID tried to have the stay revoked, but that was turned down by Justice Andrea Pettigrew Collins, who reasoned that it was not practical to have the matter continue as the judicial review hearing outcome may affect the proceedings and should be settled first.
One of the FID’s main arguments is that the grant of stay of proceedings has delayed the preparatory work needed to get the case trial ready.
However, apart from the stay of proceedings, Parish Judge Maxine Dennis-McPherson was also informed yesterday that a date for the judicial review has not yet been set and that Wildman is still awaiting a date from the registrar.
Consequently, the judge scheduled a mention date for October 3, when the prosecution is to update the court on the outcome of the application for leave to appeal Justice Pettigrew Collins’ order and also for the court to hear whether a date for the judicial review has been fixed.
The accused’s bails were extended.
The five accused were arrested by law enforcement in 2019 in connection with a major fraud and corruption probe involving transactions at the CMU.
The charges include breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act, conspiracy to defraud, misconduct in a public office at common law, and breaches of the Proceeds of Crime Act.