Attorney tells Assemblyman: Prove it was my client's voice

ASSEMBLYMAN and PNM candidate for Canaan/ Bon Accord Clarence Jacob has been challenged to bring evidence to support his claim of defamation against a man whom he accused of slandering him in a voice recording.

Responding to a pre-action protocol letter issued by Jacob to his client Basil Cox, attorney Martin George denied his client had any role to play in a voice note which went viral last month alleging impropriety at the Division of Settlement, Urban Renewal and Public Utilities, where Jacob is secretary.

Jacob claims Cox was one of two men heard in the voice recording.

The secretary’s lawyer sent a pre-action protocol letter to Daniel McDougall of Canaan, and Basil Cox of Bon Accord, accusing them of a defamatory, malicious, scandalous and highly irresponsible attack on Jacob’s character. The letter was sent on October 12 and the men were given 14 days to respond.

George challenged Jacob to prove it was Cox in the recording.

The attorney described the allegations as “wholly unsubstantiated, unsupported, useless, trite, fallacious and baseless, misguided, mis-aligned, misdirected and misconceived.” And if Jacob is unable to prove Cox is the man heard in the recording, George promised to report the secretary to the Integrity Commission.

The letter addressed to Jacob’s attorney Vashist Seepersad said, “Your client has just been selected as a candidate in the upcoming THA elections. As a result, your client’s behaviour in this regard now becomes a matter of public concern as he is seeking to offer himself as a candidate to the public in the upcoming THA elections, and he should be judged by the public on the basis of his reputation and character.”

“Our client challenges THA Assemblyman Mr Clarence Jacob to produce this alleged audio recording, for our client’s submission of same to CARIRI, UWI, UTT and the TTPS Cyber-Crime Unit, so that these institutions may carry out the scientific and technological tests on it.

"Our client states categorically that your client will never be able to produce and submit same for such testing as our client is confident that any such scientific/technological testing will undoubtedly prove that your client’s allegations in this regard are nothing more than reckless, dangerous and fabricated allegations and insinuations being made against our client, an innocent member of the public.”

George said Jacob must provide the original voice recording, prove Cox gave consent to be recorded, give evidence of who was responsible for recording and show under what circumstances was the recording done.

He said Jacob must prove the recording was not spliced, tampered, or otherwise electronically interfered with or altered.

The letter went on to say, “The source of transcription is not mentioned or identified nor is there any independent verification and/or confirmation that the transcript reflects an accurate transcribed copy of the exact contents of words on the alleged audio recording.”

The letter described Jacob’s claim is an “embarrassingly desperate attempt of clutching at straws,” to “sacrifice” Cox’s name for Jacob's "political expediency.”

In an interview with Newsday recently, Jacob described the voice recording as political mischief "engineered" to affect his nomination ahead of THA election, constitutionally due in 2021.

The PNM screening committee failed to announce a candidate for Canaan/Bon Accord last Tuesday, naming the 11 other candidates instead. Two days later, Jacob was eventually announced as the candidate.

He told Newsday on Friday, "Whatever speculation we had and issues, I think they were resolved despite there were persons engineered to cause mischief...Yes, I am taking legal action and it is in the hands of my lawyers so I don’t want to comment on that. Persons were informed, pre-action protocol letters were done and distributed.”