15% of witnesses missing in Ruel Reid trial

Approximately 15 per cent of witnesses in the multimillion-dollar fraud case involving former Education Minister and Senator Ruel Reid cannot be located, but the trial will commence in three weeks as scheduled, prosecutors have revealed.

Prosecutors disclosed on Friday that they intend to rely on 97 witnesses to prove their case, and acknowledged that delays in the six-year-old case have had “a toxic effect” on their availability, but they have already made contact with over 80 per cent of their witnesses.

“The case has in no way collapsed. It’s not a collapse of the case and they know that,” said one prosecutor, making reference to defence attorneys.

However, lawyers for Reid and his four co-accused have painted a different picture of the case, insisting that it is “not ready” for a trial and cited the absence of an indictment as proof of their assertion.

“They told us for the first time yesterday [Thursday] that they have 97 witnesses, but said only 21 have been subpoenaed to attend court,” one defence attorney, Oswest Senior Smith, told The Gleaner on Friday.

Senior Smith was making reference to disclosures he claimed were made by prosecutors during a trial-readiness hearing in the Corporate Area Criminal Court.

Reid, his wife, Sharen, and their daughter, Sharelle, were arrested and charged in 2019, along with Jamaica Labour Party Councillor Kim Brown Lawrence and former Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) President Professor Fritz Pinnock for allegedly using a fraudulent scheme to fleece over $50 million from a government-run programme for at-risk young people.

They are facing charges for a range of offences, including breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act, conspiracy to defraud, misconduct in a public office at common law, and breaches of the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The trial was put on hold by the Supreme Court up to December 2023 pending several applications for judicial review filed by the defendants.

A prosecutor in the case blamed the defendants for the delay in the case, citing the numerous legal challenges in the Supreme Court.

During that time, according to the prosecutor, who was also part of the trial-readiness hearing, the police lost contact with some witnesses.

The prosecution intends to rely on 97 out of “more than 100” witnesses to prove their case against Reid and his co-accused.

“We were able to indicate to the court that over 80 per cent of the witnesses have been located and are available. We indicated that there have been some witnesses that are not available or we have not yet located them,” the prosecutor told The Gleaner on Friday.

DRAFT INDICTMENT

Further, other witnesses are overseas and will require the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) to make special measures applications to permit them to give their evidence via video link.

The prosecutor acknowledged that the ODPP requested that the case be pushed back to February next year, but explained that this was to allow more time to locate all witnesses.

Further, the prosecutor disputed Senior Smith’s assertion that no indictment has been presented in the case.

Noting that a “draft indictment” was presented in court during the trial-readiness hearing, the prosecutor said “what we wanted to do was ensure that the witnesses in the indictment are those who we have located”.

A request by prosecutors for the trial to be pushed back to next February to allow them more time to locate witnesses was refused by Trelawny Parish Judge Vaughn Facey, who was specially assigned to the case.

Facey insisted that the trial will commence on October 6.

Defence attorneys resisted the application, according to Senior Smith, arguing that the stay in proceedings that was imposed by the Supreme Court was lifted in December 2023, “so the prosecution had all of last year and eight months of this year” to prepare their case.

“So, to be coming to the court after six years and to be asking for additional time was just a no-no,” said Senior Smith, the attorney representing Brown Lawrence.

But the prosecutor blamed the delay on the voluminous nature of the case file, the number of witnesses, and the numerous plea and case management hearings to settle Brown Lawrence’s legal representation.

“Certain applications cannot be made if all the accused are not represented, because they have to be represented to respond to whatever applications we make,” the prosecutor explained.

Both sides insist they will be ready for the trial.

editorial@gleanerjm.com