WHILE the Special Investigation and Prosecution Team’s (SIPT) trial of Michael Misick and several others from all appearances appears to be labouriously dragging on, the lead prosecutor assures that progress is being made in it drawing to a conclusion.
Weekly News spoke with the Queen’s Counsel Andrew Mitchell on Wednesday (May 3) outside of the Supreme Court’s annex on Leeward Highway when he gave this assurance.
However, while Mitchell is confident of the progress being made, he was almost as certain of it not coming to close in 2017.
Part of this is due in no small part to the very lengthy delays in the trial – due to the lead defendant changing lawyers and the defence being allowed to put their defence of the charges.
“When I told you last time that the Crown’s case was going to finish by June of course I didn’t have in mind a three month delay, which followed Mr Misick and his lead counsel parting company.
“He has instructed new counsel, that new counsel has had a chance now to read into the papers, but giving him that time in order for him to understand the case, of course has meant that we have lost effectively three months and so my June deadline in that case was optimistic.
“I would have thought that we would have reached a conclusion and I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will reach a conclusion of the Crown’s case by the time we are slated to rise for the summer holiday. So that would mean by the beginning of August,” Mitchell told this publication.
Asked for an update on the advancement thus far, the Prosecutor explained that since the trial’s resumption last week Monday, he and his colleagues representing the Crown are indeed making progress.
“We are making progress; we have called a lot of witnesses over the last two weeks.
“We are going through members of the public who were beneficiaries of cheques for not doing anything; other people whose names were used for developments that they didn’t know their names were being used and those people have come into box and giving their evidence.
“Today (Wednesday) we called evidence from Miami, these are witnesses who worked for UVI who are part of the Sandals Group to prove around $900,000 being sent to Prestigious Properties, which we the Crown say was for the benefit of Michael Misick and other monies being sent to Chal Misick, again being used by Chal and to the benefit of his brother.”
As for how many witnesses are left to be called, Mitchell said that the Crown is currently awaiting feedback from the defense on how many witnesses they are prepared to allow them to read.
This, he further explained, is because the defense had challenged some of these witnesses, some of whom produced bank accounts and similar things to the prosecution.
All told, Mitchell said that he would estimate the Crown has just below 50 witnesses left to call to give evidence.
Asked for a guesstimate on the length of the defense’s case, the prosecutor was unable to provide one.
He said that he has no idea whether any of the defendants in the trial will give evidence, so he is unable to gauge how long the defense’s case will last.
“If everybody gives evidence, of course it won’t finish this year, and I’m sure Michael Misick alone has got to be six weeks plus in terms of the issues he has to deal with, and similar for the others.
“So, no, it’s very difficult to suggest it would finish this year, but we are now making progress.
“Everybody is working a lot more industriously.”
However, the defendants will certainly get an opportunity to either defend themselves against the charges in the witness box, recall witnesses, or even call rebuttal witnesses, if they so choose.
As such, it is extremely hard to anticipate when the trial will end.
To date, the SIPT has taken one year approximately five months, with another four months to go, to present the Crown’s case against the defendants.
And with eight defendants on trial, all of whom are represented by no less than two lawyers, there is no telling when they will conclude their case of refuting the numerous charges laid against them.
High profile witnesses
Over the past year, quite a few high profile and sometimes controversial witnesses have taken the witness box, with still a few more expected.
But asked about this, Mitchell responded: “Not quite as many as you would think, we have one of the lawyers who worked in the attorney general’s chambers who will deal will deal with matters that were on her desk before Rhondalee Braithwaite Knowles became senior commercial counsel, and we are still anticipating Lisa-Rae McCoy coming to give evidence.
“But I’m afraid I can’t yet tell you when. That is definitely a high profile witness but otherwise these witnesses are just people who are giving light evidence and witnesses that we are calling to prove they received money or earnings use, or were involved in small parts of discussions or negotiations.”
Positive outcome for the Crown
Asked about the Crown’s expectations of an outcome to the case that favours them, Mitchell explained that the system here is vastly different from an American style prosecution, and that the way in which in which he is conducting the trial is in accordance with that of English common law.
As such, he added that it is not for him to be confident about the outcome.
“I am a minister of justice, I have got a case to present; I wouldn’t be presenting it if I didn’t think it was obviously a good case.
“If you were to ask me, do I think that our case has been fundamentally shaken to the point that there is no case less, the answer is no, on the contrary I think our case has only enhanced and developed our views of what has been going on during those [Misick’s] years,” the Crown Prosecutor stated.
