Attorneys urge AG: Make report on 'missing murder case file' public

CRIMINAL BAR ASSOCIATION president Israel Khan, SC, says he is eager to know if the Stanley John report into how the State failed to defend itself against a $20 million lawsuit, unearthed evidence of wrongdoing on the part of any individual.

John, a retired judge, reportedly handed over the 60-page report to Attorney General Reginald Armour, SC, on Thursday, five months after the start of the investigation.

John and former ACP Pamela Schullera-Hinds were retained by the Government to probe the State’s failure to defend a malicious prosecution lawsuit filed by nine men acquitted of murdering businesswoman Vindra Naipaul-Coolman in 2006. The State was ordered to pay over $20 million in a default judgment.

But a day after the judgment was delivered by High Court Master Martha Alexander in January, Armour, at a news conference, claimed the Naipaul-Coolman file had “disappeared” from the Office of the Solicitor General, a day after it was served in June 2020. The file mysteriously reappeared after the default judgment.

On Saturday, a newspaper article quoted John as calling, among other things, for a complete restructuring of the Civil Law Department of the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs. He believes this would prevent any recurrence of missing files. But most of the work of the department must be digitalised.

Khan told Sunday Newsday while he has not read the report, he welcomes John’s recommendation for an overhaul of the department.

“I have not read the report so I don’t know if it will really stop all of the loopholes. It is a good thing but I hope they will look at the criminal justice system as a whole, including the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions,” he said.

“The whole system needs overhauling not just the Criminal Law Department. But what I want to know is if anybody had committed any wrongdoing or whether there was negligence. That is what I want to know.”

Opposition senator Jayanti Lutchmedial, meanwhile, said she could not comment on a report that has not been disclosed publicly.

“Given the absurd allegation made by AG Armour at his farcical press conference that the file was 'missing' and the reported $800,000 spent on this investigation, this report must be made public,” she said on Saturday in a statement.

“A secret investigation to produce a secret report makes no sense after all the ridiculous insinuations made by Armour. The public has paid for this and the public has a right to know whether Armour was lying when he said the file went missing.”

Lutchmedial, an attorney, added, “I maintain that the file could not possibly have been missing because court documents are filed electronically and we had regularly e-mailed all the documents to the State upon request. Further, the AG was represented by Assistant Solicitor General (now judge) Karen Reid who fully participated in the trial and could not do so without a file."

She claimed the investigation was part of the political modus operandi of the Government to do damage control.

“This investigation was designed to distract public pressure, take the heat of Armour and buy time. It is a classic case of political bait and switch: bait us with the prospect of an independent investigation which gives the impression that the Government is taking action and then flick the switch after the heat has cooled off and refuse to make the report public.”

The UNC senator urged Armour to make the report public.

“It is difficult to understand John’s call for an overhaul to prevent files from going missing because all court documents are filed and served electronically via email and it is easy to simply email the registrar and get copies of any document that you do not have – how on earth can it go “missing’?

“This sounds very much like throwing the hard-working state lawyers under the bus to save Armour from the obvious egg on his face as there was never any “missing file” in the first place. Indeed, it is curious that no other AG has had this silly complaint about a missing file.”She asked, “If there was negligence, has the culprit(s) been identified? Has disciplinary action been recommended? Did John recommend that Armour apologise for misleading the nation? I suspect not. “

Lutchmedial believes the critical issues that prompted this investigation were: How could an electronic email file go "missing? How could the lawyers have participated in the trial without a file? If the file was missing why not simply go back into your emails and re-print the documents or ask the registrar of the court for copies as lawyers often do?

“This was an investigation into our clients’ case. We asked John whether he would undertake to disclose this report to us and he indicated that was up to Armour. Today we ask Armour – having vilified our clients in the worst way, do you intend to disclose this report or was it just another PNM sham?”

On January 30, High Court Master Alexander awarded $19,168,917.56 to the nine men, representing the award for malicious prosecution and exemplary damages; costs amounting to $200,917.56; and the cost of an expert witness of $68,000.

Interest was added to the damages for each man at a rate of 2.5 per cent, from May 29, 2020, to January 30, 2023, which will push the final figure up.

The nine – Shervon Peters, Devon Peters, Anthony Gloster, Joel Fraser, Ronald Armstrong, Keida Garcia, Jameel Garcia, Marlon Trimmingham and Antonio Charles – were among 12 men who went on trial in 2016 for Naipaul-Coolman’s murder.

Eight were acquitted and one released after the trial judge upheld a no-case submission.

Two men – Earl "Bobo" Trimmingham and Lyndon "Iron" James – were ordered to be re-tried for businesswoman’s murder. Allan "Scanny" Martin, who was also on trial, was killed in 2016 during a failed escape attempt from the Frederick Street prison in Port of Spain.

Gloster was killed in a drive-by shooting in Diego Martin in October 2021.

Naipaul-Coolman, 52, CEO of Xtra Foods supermarket, was kidnapped on December 19, 2006, from her home at Radix Road, Lange Park, Ch­agua­nas. Her body has nev­er been found, but she was de­clared dead by Homi­cide Bu­reau in­ves­ti­ga­tors.