Scoon appears in court on party-boat charges

BUSINESSMAN Adrian Scoon made his first court appearance on Monday charged with breaching public health regulations by holding a public party and operating a party boat without permission on Boxing Day last year.

He is also charged with breaching the regulations on public gatherings in excess of ten people.

Scoon, the son of Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon, appeared virtually before Port of Spain magistrate Kerianne Byer along with 91 other people who were said to be patrons of the brunch event that took place on his Ocean Pelican vessel.

Another man, event promoter Shadeed Abdullah, was also charged with the same offences. The other 90 were charged with breaching the regulations on public gatherings.

At Monday’s hearing, Byer read out the names of all 91 and assigned them a number. They will return to court in batches of 30 on May 9, when it is expected an attorney from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions will be assigned to prosecute the group.

She also heard from those represented by legal counsel and those who were not whether they were properly served with a summons to appear at Monday’s hearing, asking each of them if they chose to waive their right to service or if fresh summonses should be issued if they so chose.

Scoon was served with a summons in early March  after a raid on his home in Maraval and his office at Queen’s Park West by police in January.

At Monday’s hearing, Byer said she did not intend to take individual pleas, since in a previous matter, involving a little over 60 people accused of breaching the regulations in an unrelated incident, the DPP’s office wrote to her indicating its intention to take over the matter from police prosecutors.

At that hearing, she had separated the accused by their willingness to plead and adjourned their sentencing before receiving the letter from the DPP’s office.

"I don’t intend to waste my time giving people the false hope that their pleas would be heard today or in the near future," Byer said, adding that in the other matter, she was told the police no longer had control over the prosecution and the matter would be dealt with by state counsel when one is appointed.

“I suspect the same is going to happen here,” Byer said.

As a result, during the two-hour-long sitting, none of the accused were called upon to plead, nor were the charges even read.

In response to questions from the magistrate, police prosecutor Sgt George said he intended to send the file to the DPP’s office within the month because of “technical issues and the gravity” of the matter.

The announcement led to Scoon’s attorney Larry Williams saying he was “perplexed” by the procedure to be adopted.

“This is your court. If the DPP’s Office wants to be involved, then the DPP’s Office should have an officer (attorney) present.

“The dog always wags the tail and the DPP’s Office is not the dog,” Williams said to the court.

He said those before the court deserved the right to have the charge(s) against them read and to be allowed to enter their plea.

“If they (the DPP’s office) want to get involved they can send someone to prosecute, but what if someone wants to plead guilty? We all knew to be here today.”

He also questioned the prosecutor’s claim of its being a “grave matter,” adding, “A gathering in more than groups of ten is a ‘grave matter?’”

In spite of this, Byer said she was willing to hold her hand in  reading the charges until the matters come up again for hearing. She also ordered those who were not summoned to e-mail the court so they could be provided with the summary of evidence against them before that date.

For those who were not represented during the hearing, the magistrate advised them of their right to obtain an attorney either privately or through Legal Aid.

All 92 were charged by Insp Clifton Ramjattan of the Carenage Police Station.

Scoon denied he was operating a party boat and maintained he had the necessary approvals to use the Ocean Pelican as a floating restaurant. He also maintained he was, at all times, adhering to the covid19 safe-zone regulations.

The police’s investigations were split into two parts: the issuance of special restaurant licences to Scoon by the Customs and Excise Division and the possible breaches to the public health regulations.

The special licence has since been rescinded and rendered “null and void” by the Customs and Excise Division and an internal investigation has been launched to determine how it was issued when Finance Minister Colm Imbert said he never authorised it nor did he give permission for its approval.

On January 5, officers searched Scoon’s Maraval home and his Queen’s Park West office, seizing several electronic devices, including cellphones and computers.

The police also sought a special warrant to force Scoon to provide the passwords so the police could search for information about the promotion of the Boxing Day event.

This warrant, sought under the Interception of Communications Act, was denied to Sgt Ramjattan by Justice Geoffrey Henderson earlier this month.

He said he was of the view that the request was excessive and disproportionate in light of the fact that investigators were seeking evidence that Scoon advertised the event on social media.

Scoon has also filed a claim against the justice of the peace who signed off on the warrant allowing police to search his property, claiming it was illegal.

Former attorney general Faris Al-Rawi was also named in newspaper reports on the police raid on the December 26, 2021, event on the Ocean Pelican ,which claimed he had a telephone conversation with Scoon while the businessman was being questioned by police after they stopped the event.

Al-Rawi admitted to having the conversation but repeatedly denied giving Scoon legal advice or seeking to influence the police's investigation.

Scoon is also being represented by attorney Renuka Rambhajan and Toni Roberts. Craig Beepath is representing Abdullah and several of the patrons.