Lawsuit threat on Lewin
Published:Friday | July 2, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, once the highest-ranking crime-fighter in the army and the police force, seems destined to engage in a fierce legal battle waged by a government minister.
National Security Minister Dwight Nelson yesterday launched a broadside at Lewin over damning statements he made on a CVM TV interview programme on Wednesday night.
Lewin alleged that Tivoli Gardens enforcer Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, who the United States indicted on drug-smuggling and gunrunning charges, got word of the extradition request for him within 15 minutes after Lewin, then the police commissioner, advised Nelson.
The security minister confirmed that the matter was headed for the court.
"I will be seeking legal recourse and as such will be discussing the matter with attorneys," Nelson told The Gleaner yesterday.
In a rebuttal of Wednesday night's interview, Nelson assailed the former police chief, describing his tenure as an abject failure.
He also claimed that Lewin's comments were politically coloured.
"His (Lewin's) strident call for the resignation of the prime minister must be seen as a rearguard action to achieve what the People's National Party's censure motion in Parliament failed to do," charged Nelson.
Opposition Spokesman on National Security, Peter Bunting, said Lewin's revelations have grave implications as the information was available only to the minister of national security, the then commissioner of police, the army chief and the prime minister.
"This latest revelation is consistent with the deception and seeming complicity surrounding the prime minister's, and several of his ministers', statements and actions to delay and frustrate the extradition request over a nine-month period," said Bunting.
He characterised Nelson's response as a personal attack on Lewin.
Nelson hit back at Lewin with a vengeance, hours after the former police chief characterised the leak to Coke as a strange "coincidence".
"The statements made by Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin during a television interview on Wednesday night reflect the maliciousness of a bitter and revengeful man," declared the national security minister.
"I reject and repudiate Mr Lewin's insinuation that either the prime minister or I alerted Christopher Coke to the existence of an extradition request by the US authorities," he added.
Lewin claimed that he was informed of the extradition request on August 24, 2009, after which he conveyed the information to Nelson.
Poor job as commissioner
But yesterday, a raging Nelson charged that Lewin's failure to adduce any evidence to support his reckless statement raises questions as to his real motive.
"A matter of such grave consequences for national security could not have been kept hidden for so long only now to be disclosed in some dramatic revelation," argued Nelson.
"His reckless outburst must be attributed to his abject failure as commissioner of police," declared Nelson. "During his tenure crime exploded to record levels with more than 800 murders being committed in his first six months on the job."
Nelson said Lewin managed the operational arm of the crime portfolio in May 2008 when 199 Jamaicans were gunned down.
"His failure was due to his inability to devise and implement effective crime-fighting strategies and the arrogance of his leadership which alienated large sections of the police force and deprived him of the support that a commissioner needs if the force is to be effectively managed and deployed," charged Nelson.
The minister said the ineffectiveness of his leadership in tackling crime was demonstrated in his public declaration that crime would "get worse before it got better".