ALMOST THERE

CITING GAINS made while reviewing the judiciary this year, including matters of high public interest, the country’s chief prosecutor Paula Llewellyn says she has moved her office into the 21st century.

Llewellyn, the director of public prosecutions (DPP), is transitioning to demit office in a couple years after her tenure was extended a few months ago, triggering much public debate.

In a recent sit-down with The Gleaner, she said that upon taking office in 2008, only a third of the space they currently enjoy was available for 27 lawyers, who were “burnt out”.

“I had to have a five-year plan and a vision of what I had to accomplish in moving the office into the 21st century. Thank God, I would say 85 per cent has been accomplished. We have a code of conduct [and] we have a lot of protocols that new persons get when they come in,” Llewellyn said.

She told The Gleaner she is pleased to leave behind a website, a platform she did not inherit when appointed.

“We are now retrofitting it. We have a very highly specialised identity filing system that has just been put in. Nearly a hundred million dollars’ worth to carry all our historical files going back 30, 40, 50 years,” Llewellyn said of digitising efforts, adding that the office now has 58 lawyers and five paralegals on staff.

“I am still making representation for more staff as well ... . We have, along the way, lost over 20 people to the Bench (now judges in the high court and parish court) during my tenure. We have many different units we didn’t have before,” Llewellyn said.

The DPP’s office this year dealt with high-profile cases that included the murder of Member of Parliament Phillip Paulwell’s 10-month-old daughter Sarayah and her mother 27-year-old Toshyna Patterson, and the Clansman-One Don gang trial..

There were convictions in both cases and Llewellyn said Jamaica is probably the first country in the Caribbean to equip the office of the DPP with specialised units.

“We have the digital and cybercrimes unit; the biggest unit is the mutual legal assistance unit; we have extradition, labour relations and anti-gang. You’re not going to see that in any other prosecutor’s office in the Caribbean,” Llewellyn said, adding that in terms of the physical plant, Jamaica reigns supreme.

She gave her office the passing grade and also commented on her extension.

“I think we have done well. This is one of the reasons why I wanted the extension – to complete the renovation and I was able to accomplish that,” Llewellyn said.

Marking her calendar year of achievement, she said the Clansman-One Don gang prosecution yielded a first in the region.

“The first in the Caribbean to have those amount of persons [convicted] ... . Trinidad has not recorded one conviction in a gang case and they have the legislation. They have the plea negotiations legislation, but it seems to me that Jamaica leads in terms of how often we use it,” Llewellyn told The Gleaner from her made-over office suite.

According to Llewellyn, the Clansman-One Don case called for a lot of experience to put it together, hold it, and keep the main witnesses engaged. She also pointed to the security component, which is least spoken of, noting that it took tremendous effort and resources.

“In this final stage before I demit office over the two years, the final big-ticket thing that I have to try to accomplish is the unification of the office of the DPP with all our powers under the Constitution to take administrative control of the clerk of courts, the prosecutors in the lower court,” Llewellyn said.

Presently they are administratively supervised by the chief justice and the Parish Court judges.

“When they had the JUST Program when the Canadians came here many years ago ... they had made that recommendation to Cabinet ... . The policy from the Ministry of Justice is that we are to take over the administrative control and it’s called unification,” Llewellyn said of her last big item.

“So it benefits from having the experience and knowing all the corners and crevices so that when my successor takes over a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of the firsts would already have been done,” she said with her signature smile.

Meanwhile, in July, the Government scored a major victory when the Full Court ruled that the three-year extension granted to Llewellyn in 2020 was lawful.

Double-murder convict Mervin Cameron had challenged the extension on the basis that it was illegal because the authorities failed to follow the proper procedure provided for an extension to be granted to the DPP under the Constitution and the Interpretation Act, thereby rendering the appointment null and void.

The court, however, said: “The fact that the extension would have taken effect on either the day of the DPP’s birthday or the day after was of no moment.”

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com