The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

FORMER State Minister for Legal Affairs Damian Gomez is calling for a commission of inquiry into police conduct in the investigation that led to the bribery and extortion trial of former PLP Senator Frank Smith.

Mr Gomez, who represented Mr Smith in those proceedings with Jamaican QC Keith Knight, called the government’s speedy appeal a “nonsensical” bid to prevent the public from asking hard questions about alleged police corruption and political interference exposed during the trial.

Mr Gomez told The Tribune he would not rest until the public fully understood the serious revelations that led Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt to acquit and discharge Mr Smith of all 15 criminal charges against him.

In her ruling last Friday, the chief magistrate pointed to numerous “inconsistencies” and “discrepancies” in the Crown’s case, which she further said was “undermined” by its own witnesses. She also cited the “egregious” behaviour of two Cabinet ministers connected to the matter. Irregularities in the phone logs of Mr Smith and complainant Barbara Hanna that were produced by police and the logs from Mr Smith’s billing company were also raised at trial.

“The real issue is the (conduct) of Dr Duane Sands and Mr Marvin Dames in these proceedings and the alarming falsification of evidence by the police,” he alleged. “That is such a significant issue that the public ought to be screaming for explanations and we ought to have an inquiry into the conduct of the police.”

He continued: “I’m not only calling for one I will be advising my client that we need to go to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for a position to be taken with respect to the Bahamas having regard to the politicisation of prosecutions in this country.”

The government filed its appeal on Monday. 

In their filing, prosecutors state some material illegality or irregularity – committed in the course of the proceedings – substantially affected the merits of the case.

They also argued the chief magistrate took extraneous matters into consideration; that her decision was unreasonable and could not have been supported by evidence; evidence was wrongly rejected or inadmissible evidence was wrongly admitted by the magistrate, and that in the latter case there was not sufficient evidence to sustain the decision; and that her decision was based on a wrong principle or was such that a magistrate viewing the circumstances reasonably could not properly have so decided.

Yesterday, Mr Gomez said - based on those grounds - the government’s appeal doesn’t “have a hope”.

“They are trying to prevent the public from asking hard questions that have arisen out of this trial,” Mr Gomez continued, “right now we are waiting and watching but in very short order we will be in gear and do what we have to do. My main point of order is making sure the public understand that we are only taking this step because we are attempting to defend the interests of ordinary people, who don’t have the resources to mount a significant defence against the state.”

He also alleged: “When you have the police falsifying evidence that is a chilling concern for ordinary poor people.”

Inconsistencies between Mr Smith and virtual complainant Barbara Hanna’s phone logs were raised by Mr Gomez during trial.

Despite Mr Smith being in custody between July 19 and 21 of last year, some 31 calls were purportedly made from his cell phone to Barbara Hanna’s cell phone.

A comparison of Mr Smith’s call logs and the BTC phone bill of Mrs Hanna revealed that while the call logs purported to show a number of outgoing calls from Mr Smith’s cell phone to Mrs Hanna, it was the other way around.

Based on Mrs Hanna’s BTC phone bill, a total of 64 calls were made between the two, as opposed to the 106 purported to have been made in a police officer’s report.

In reference to this, Chief Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt said: “The call logs were likely manipulated to create the false impression that the accused was constantly calling Barbara Hanna when, in fact, it was the reverse.”

Continuing yesterday, Mr Gomez alleged: “How else do you describe falsifying phone logs? We put the evidence in and we were painstaking in that production of that evidence before the magistrate, the explanation that has been proffered by the Crown is illogical. It was clear someone was cherry picking and that it happened in a police station.

“That is the most alarming thing in a criminal trial. This is why I’m calling for an inquiry. If this can happen in a case with a prominent Bahamian from a wealthy family, how is it expected that ordinary folk would have the wherewithal to ensure they are not victimised by this level of police abuse.”

PLP Leader Philip Davis has called for Mr Dames and Dr Sands to resign over the matter. Yesterday he said Attorney General Carl Bethel should resign as well.