Spencer ruling ready, says judge

Senior Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey signalled yesterday that she is ready to make her ruling on the application filed by defence attorneys to have the corruption case against former Junior Minister Kern Spencer dismissed.

"My ruling is typed and waiting," Pusey declared, interrupting Spencer's attorney, Patrick Atkinson, in court yesterday.

Atkinson was making his submission in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court, opposing an application by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn for Pusey to recuse herself from the trial.

Atkinson said it was significant that both times the magistrate was about to make a ruling in the case, Llewellyn filed "some collateral action to stop those rulings".

Asked for dismissal

Atkinson and attorney-at-law K.D. Knight, who represents co-accused, Coleen Wright, had asked Pusey, on October 11, to dismiss the case, citing prosecutorial misconduct.

Pusey had set November 15 as the date she would rule on the motion, but was barred from doing so after Llewellyn, who is the lead prosecutor in the case, sought leave in the Supreme Court to ask the Judicial Review Court to remove her from the case on the grounds of apparent bias.

The Supreme Court refused to grant the leave on the grounds that there was no order from the magistrate.

Llewellyn went back to the Resident Magistrate's Court armed with an affidavit from one of her junior prosecutors, Keri-Ann Kemble, and filed an application asking Pusey to recuse herself from the case.

Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Carolyn Hay, who is representing Llewellyn, cited several examples of why Pusey's language and conduct could be considered biased.

One such example was a comment Pusey made on April 20 telling Llewellyn "it's you against me". Pusey said the comment was taken out of context, as her full statement was "it cannot be that it is going to be you against me".

Not worth the paper

Yesterday, Atkinson poured scorn on Kemble's affidavit, calling it "scandalous", before telling the court, at one point, that it was not worth the paper on which it was printed.

Referring to Kemble as "the most junior counsel in these proceedings", Atkinson said the affidavit contained numerous errors and comments that were taken out of context.

"If the allegations made by Kemble were placed in the proper context, it would prove that the court was giving the prosecution a chance to address real issues of concern," Atkinson argued.

In addition, he said the allegations contained in the affidavit are not sufficient to establish a case of bias against Pusey.

The case will continue on Monday when Knight will make his submissions on the application for the magistrate to recuse herself.

Spencer, the member of parliament for North East St Elizabeth, and Wright, his former assistant, are on trial for alleged corruption in connection with the Cuban light-bulb project.