The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A WITNESS in Adrian Gibson’s criminal trial fainted in court after testifying yesterday, prompting court employees to call the ambulance.

Mynez Cargill-Sherman, a senior manager at the Water and Sewerage Corporation (WSC), shocked the courtroom when she fainted in the witness box shortly after Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson cautioned her not to discuss her evidence with anyone before the next hearing.

When Justice Grant-Thompson advised her to leave the stand, Mrs Cargill-Sherman did not. The judge then asked if she was okay. She replied that she was nauseous and fainted shortly afterwards.

Earlier, Mrs Cargill-Sherman was cross-examined by Gibson’s attorney, Damian Gomez, KC, concerning her claims about being “terminated” in 2018 after refusing to pay companies awarded landscaping contracts and again in 2021.

 She testified yesterday that Elwood Donaldson, her former boss, was “constantly harassing” her to make payments to those companies before she was reassigned.

 But the witness repeated that she lacked the necessary paperwork and told Mr Donaldson the same.

 Pointing to messages she had with Mr Donaldson, Mr Gomez said it didn’t appear there was any tension between the two over the matter.

 She responded that the messages showed the two were going back and forth over the matter.

 “He’s still asking me to pay and I’m still telling him I cannot,” she said.

 Ms Cargill-Sherman said Mr Donaldson wanted her to contact another employee and inform them of his directions for her to assist with the payment process.

 “I’m saying to him that we’re dealing with senior managers (and) executives. I cannot be this messenger. He needs to send them an email or he needs to inform them himself that he has advised me to go over their head,” she added.

 Mr Gomez then asked the witness about her second reassignment in 2021 when she was allegedly transferred out of WSC’s safety department, where she served as safety manager.

 “Isn’t it true that earlier on that day, you wrote to the executive chairman via email and requested of him that you be relieved of your duties at that department?” Mr Gomez asked.

 However, the witness disagreed and told the court she sent an email to Mr Gibson after Mr Donaldson relieved her of the post.

 “I sent him an email asking him to investigate it and to find out what it was that I had done wrong because nothing was explained to me,” she said, adding she never heard back on the matter.

 Ms Cargill-Sherman is expected to return for continued cross-examination at the next hearing.

 Mr Gomez, KC, Murrio Ducille, KC, Bryan Bastian, Ryan Eve, Mr Raphael Moxey, Christina Galanos, Ian Cargill and Donald Saunders represent the defendants.

 Meanwhile, acting Director of Public Prosecutions Cordell Frazier, Cashena Thompson, Karine MacVean and Rashied Edgecombe are the Crown’s prosecutors.