Bail extended for Ruel Reid, Fritz Pinnock and other co-accused in corruption case

The multimillion-dollar fraud case involving former Education Minister Ruel Reid, Caribbean Maritime University president Professor Fritz Pinnock and three other co-accused was adjourned this morning until March 9 next year.

Reid, his wife Sharen, their daughter Sharelle, along with Pinnock and Brown's Town division councillor Kim Brown-Lawrence are facing fraud and corruption charges in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.

Their bails were further extended by the court.

The accused were arrested in October 2019 for allegedly defrauding the Ministry of Education and the Caribbean Maritime University of millions of dollars.

The matter was stalled this morning as Reid and Pinnock are before the Judicial Review Court seeking to quash a ruling of Senior Parish Judge Chester Crooks in their fraud case.

They are contending that the judge should not have ruled in an earlier matter because of a conflict of interest.

Crooks and Reid are both past students of Munro College in St Elizabeth.

Crooks had heard a preliminary objection from their attorney Hugh Wildman that the trial should not take place because personnel from the Financial Investigations Division did not have the authority in law to arrest or bring charges against the accused.

On February 4 this year, Crooks disagreed and ordered that the fraud case should go to trial.

At the time, however, Crooks revealed that he would not try the case because there was a potential conflict of interest.

In May, Reid and Pinnock filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking leave to go to the Judicial Review Court to quash Crooks' ruling following the discovery that the judge is also a Munro past student.

In June, the Supreme Court granted leave for them to go before the Judicial Review Court.

With the case before the judicial review still pending, a new date was set for the matter before the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.

“The matter downtown is still in a sort of limbo,” said Crooks this morning.

Meanwhile, the court also gave sufficient time for Brown-Lawrence to settle her legal representation.

Her previous attorney Ernest Smith, who had expressed a desire for the charges against her to be tried separately, has died.

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