Kern 'show' must get on the road - Judge
Published:Tuesday | April 12, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Senior Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey yesterday reserved judgment on an application for her to bar Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn from a section of the Kern Spencer trial.
Pusey will make a ruling today, but this is contingent on whether Kern Spencer and co-accused Coleen Wright can make their way from St Elizabeth to the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court in St Andrew.
Mass protests were being planned for today, and Pusey said she would understand if it became difficult for the two to appear in court.
Pusey has lamented the slow pace of the trial and has bemoaned the effects of further loss of time on the trial.
"We need to really get this show on the road. We are no way out of the woods as yet," Pusey said, while noting current witness, Rodney Chin, was the third of approximately 30 to be called in the matter.
Pusey has asked the parties to try to have the matter completed by the middle of this year.
Yesterday, defence attorneys K.D. Knight and Patrick Atkinson submitted that Llewellyn, the lead prosecution counsel, should be kept away from the courtroom until Chin has given evidence.
"Her being called is a result of the interview she conducted in November 2008," Knight said in his application to Pusey.
from accused to witness
The defence attorneys say they want Llewellyn to explain the circumstances under which Chin moved from an accused man to a witness.
"Something happened that caused Chin to move from the prisoner's dock to the witness stand, and coincidentally, by the way of $300 million of government contracts," Atkinson said.
Chin, the main prosecution witness in the corruption trial brought against Spencer, a former junior government minister, and Wright, has resumed his testimony in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court after a one-year break.
The trial hit a snag after, under cross-examination, Chin told the court he had met with Llewellyn to discuss his statement. At the time, he was charged in the matter.
Aside from being asked his name and how he met Spencer, Chin said he could not recall what he was asked by Llewellyn.
It was at that stage Knight objected to Llewellyn being in the courtroom while Chin was on the stand.
"I don't want my witness to be seen as a tainted witness ... . I don't want for her in any way to be giving evidence that is coloured," Knight said.
However, Caroline Haye, a senior deputy director of public prosecutions, characterised as "unusual" the application by the defence.
"We do not concede that the director is a witness in this matter," she said.
Spencer has been on trial since June 2009. He is accused of corruption as a result of his handling of an energy-saving light-bulb project implemented by the People's National Party administration.