Email evidence turns up heat on Lightbourne
Published:Thursday | March 17, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
Justice Minister and Attorney General Dorothy Lightbourne was yesterday shunted on the defensive when a damning email, allegedly sent on her behalf and produced at the Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry, starkly contradicted some of her earlier claims.
As the documents were produced and submitted as exhibits, Lightbourne sought to distance herself from the contents and the staff members who were purportedly carrying out her instructions.
This prompted Oliver Smith, the attorney representing Solicitor General Douglas Leys, who produced the email, to ask the attorney general: "Have you ever taken responsibility for anything?"
The contents of the two-page email were out of sync with Lightbourne's stance that she had a telephone conversation with Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Cole of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF).
Apart from Leys, Lightbourne's testimony has burnt Cole and Lisa Palmer Hamilton, who was serving as acting director of public prosecutions (DPP) when the extradition reached Jamaica.
A hush swept through Room Five of the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston as Smith produced the email, sent by Verna McGaw.
McGaw is no longer with the justice ministry.
The name of Harold Brady, the attorney who had helped the Jamaica Labour Party or the Government engage United States law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, was also ushered into the glare as the email was sent from Lightbourne to him.
"Can we agree that's a point in time when the events would be fresh in your mind?" Smith queried in relation to the email sent by McGaw 30 days after a telephone conversation with Palmer Hamilton.
But Lightbourne sought to distance herself from the email.
The justice minister told the enquiry that she could not say whether the email was the one she had instructed to be sent out.
Relentless probe
Lightbourne was hard put to respond to Smith's relentless probe.
She told the enquiry that she could not recall all the details surrounding the instructions leading to the email.
Smith had earlier given Lightbourne an opportunity to retract claims that she spoke to Cole by telephone in August 2009 in Palmer Hamilton's office.
But Lightbourne refused.
The justice minister had also rebuffed Smith's claim that she had been less than truthful throughout her testimony because she was fearful that a formal complaint would be lodged against her conduct as an attorney-at-law.
Who sent the email?
When Smith asked Lightbourne whether McGaw was one such person she had assist her with the email, the justice minister responded: "Yes, but I can't recall if she was there in August 2009."
However, Lightbourne later said she could not recall whether McGaw had actually sent the email on her behalf.
Lightbourne's email stated that Cole had expressed a desire to meet with her.
The email, which was sent 30 days after the event, corroborated Cole and Palmer Hamilton's claim that the JDF officer was with the acting DPP when she spoke to the attorney general and that he did not speak to Lightbourne.
"There was nothing to indicate in the email that you spoke with Mr Cole," emphasised Smith.
"Yes," Lightbourne responded, acknowledging Smith's analysis of the email was correct.
"But I spoke with him," she added, in what would become a recurring decimal in her response.
Lightbourne was also placed under fire for her claim that Leys had not sought her permission to invite a Manatt representative to a meeting at the Department of Justice in Washington.
Smith suggested that Leys spoke to Lightbourne about the Manatt attorney.
Lightbourne claimed that Leys had raised the matter about American lawyers, but did not seek her approval to take him to a meeting.
"I raised with him whether he would consider retaining them," Lightbourne insisted.
But Smith suggested that Lightbourne was not telling the truth as the issue of retaining attorneys at that point in time would have been logistically impossible.