The Tribune

POLICE Commissioner Ellison Greenslade was called upon yesterday to apologise to political activist Rodney Moncur after he was acquitted in the magistrate’s court of committing a “grossly indecent act”.

College of the Bahamas Professor Felix Bethel said he was with Mr Moncur straight through his ordeal and never believed there was a case against him.

“I agree with him in regards to the Commissioner. At a minimum, he owes Mr Moncur an apology. It would be the decent thing for him to do because when Mr Moncur was charged it was indecent.”

Fresh from his victory in the case, Mr Moncur told The Tribune that at times over the past year he was emotionally devastated. 

“One of the major distractions in the case was that I was devastated that Greenslade was involved in this whole fiasco and so I had to quickly sever the emotional attachments I had to him, his mother being a Moncur and my (father) being a Moncur,” he said. Mr Moncur added that he had learned that the Police Commissioner was the “virtual complainant” in his case while being interviewed in March last year by Police Inspector Mark Barrett.

“Under cross examination,” Mr Moncur said, “I asked who was the complainant. Barrett said it was the Commissioner of Police. That’s not unnatural. Then I asked who was the virtual complainant. He said it was the Commissioner of Police. That was an interesting, what I call gangsta twist, in this whole thing.”

Mr Moncur represented himself during his court case.

To prepare he said: “I read up one or two court cases and then had to sit down and attempt to remember a judgment written by Dame Joan Sawyer, former Chief Justice and President of the Court of Appeal, who said it was wrong for the police to arrest a suspect then go out and gather the evidence, and that is what the cross-examiner did two days after I was charged.”

Mr Moncur said a fire that destroyed his house on May 8, 2013 was a further distraction to him.

“The police prosecution,” he said, “began to play games when their witnesses began not showing up. My position was, arrest the witnesses for not showing up because it was important for them to show up so I could expose the gangsterism that was being done against me. It became clear that the whole case was to put me on exhibition and the police was using the case to intimidate Facebook users. Plus, there’s a bunch of things I know they don’t like about me.”

Now that the “major distraction” of the case is past him, Mr Moncur said he will concentrate on making his life more comfortable.

“There are personal commitments that I have to deal with,” he said. “One, I have to go and complete the repairs to my deceased grandmother’s home. I have to clean up the debris. I owed some bills and I just paid out a sizable amount to pay those bills. My cab, I’ve had that mechanically fixed and I only need it painted so I could go back on the streets. I’m going to deal with those personal matters so I could have a better sense of personal comfort for myself and my wife.”

“I’m not bitter,” he said. “I’m not bitter towards the Commissioner. I think he should resign, though, because I think I established beyond a reasonable doubt that the police lied on me when they accused me of breaking into the morgue and taking photos therein.”

Finally, he said:  “I want to thank the Negro community for their emotional support and comfort and I want to thank all Bahamians of goodwill who prayed for me and wished me well and the best.”

Mr Moncur also extended a special thanks to The Tribune for being the only national newspaper to consistently cover his matter while he was before the courts.

Mr Moncur, who was arraigned on April 4, 2013, faced a single charge of committing a “grossly indecent act”. It is claimed that between March 1 and March 29, he “intentionally and unlawfully” published a photograph of the body of Jamie Smith, a 35-year-old man who died of asphyxia while in police custody on February 9, 2013.