Pusey to rule on Kern case November 15
Published:Thursday | October 21, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
Senior Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey is to rule on November 15 whether the case against former junior minister Kern Spencer and his former assistant, Coleen Wright, will be thrown out.
The RM reserved her ruling yesterday after hearing submissions from lawyers for the defence and the prosecution in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court.
Spencer and Wright are charged with breaches of the corruption and money laundering acts, arising from the implementation of the Cuban light-bulb project.
The controversy stems from an interview Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn and senior police officers had with the Crowns' star witness, Rodney Chin, when he was Spencer's co-accused.
Queen's Counsel K.D. Knight and Patrick Atkinson, who are representing the defence, had called for disclosures in relation to the interview.
It was first disclosed that the meeting with Chin took place after he gave a statement to the police, but last week further disclosure was made that the interview was done before Chin gave his statement to the police.
Prosecutorial misconduct
The recent disclosure prompted the defence lawyers to call for the case against the accused to be dismissed because they cannot get a fair trial. The lawyers also accused the DPP of prosecutorial misconduct and abuse of the process.
Yesterday, Acting Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Caroline Hay, in arguing on behalf of the DPP, opposed the submissions made by the defence lawyers. She stressed that there was no abuse of the process on the part of the prosecution, including the police.
Hay called for the application to be dismissed and for the trial to resume on the information validly before the court.
She emphasised that it was clear that the proper approach would be to hear the evidence of the remaining witnesses and then determine what to make of Chin.