Last night we told you about the 22 charges of uttering upon a forged document that were dropped against Mayor Zenaida Moya. Today she was back in court to hear the outcome for the final two relatively minor charges against her.
The criminal charges had been levied 13 months ago as she became the first official to be criminally charged while holding elected office. On that day, October first 2009, she came out of the courtroom with the rage of a fire breathing dragon - and said that now infamous line - that "some people had no balls."
But there was no media circus 13 months later as she strolled into court number two this afternoon with a smile on her face.
The matter took less than two minutes to be disposed of as Magistrate Fraser threw out the charges and declared the Mayor and her assistant Kiran Bhudrani free to go, discharged of all charges.
Outside the courtroom the once fiery Moya was full of grace.
Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers
"Of course it feels good; it's certainly a relief, I am happy. I must first of all give thanks to the almighty, I never gave up faith and trust in him that he would bring through this and also want to thank my attorney and all those people who stood by me, prayed for me right through, gave me encouraging words and I feel good that now I can move on continuing doing
the work that I was elected to do. I just want to repeat that I hold no malice, no grudge against anybody. I always say that every time things happen for a reason and this has simply brought me closer to my maker."
Jules Vasquez
"In court yesterday you told me that tears fell because…well those were indictable offences, if you had been found guilty of uttering that, that's 2 years per count and there were 22 counts, you could have served 44 years. What is the feeling like right now? is there a feeling of great relief and a second chance?"
Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers
"Of course, I mean I have a little son now, he will be 14 months tomorrow, he is 13 months - almost 14 months and it's a relief to know that I'll be there with him to see him grow up and to be a mother to him."
Jules Vasquez
"However you must concede the fact that in the 13 months since you've been charged, your life, your standing in both your political party and in your administrative post of mayor have been thrown into disarray - you had to hire attorneys to try to fight expulsion from party, as I understand it right now you are expelled, you are no longer a UDP. Everything has been turned upside down."
Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers
"Jules, I continue to say that I am a UDP, I remain a UDP and I remain committed to the UDP."
Jules Vasquez
"13 months ago you stood up here and you said some things which had never been heard in the history of politics. Do you now regret what you said?"
Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers
"Looking back on things you always see how you could have done things differently at the end of the day, again, I reiterate, I hold no malice or grudge to anybody. At that moment I had just given birth to my little son Kelvin and I felt that whatever was happening at that time should not have been happening. I was a new mother."
And while she still declares loyalty to the UDP - as we understand it - officially, she is not, as she remains an expelled member.
But back to the final two charges, Moya's Attorney Mike Peyrefitte told us why they could not stand.
Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney
"The prosecutor indicated to the court that he had made all efforts to locate the witnesses to come, they were summoned to court but the court cannot wait, they just did not appear and the court cannot wait, wait, wait until the witnesses decide to appear. It's been over a year and the court decided, well, if the crown is not ready now they would probably never be ready, so dismissed the matter and stop wasting people's time."
Four persons were initially accused: Mayor Moya, City Administrator Kiran Vanjani, Financial Controller Dwain Davis and the Mayor's Assistant Kiran Bhudrani: Davis passed away and all charges against the other three have now been dropped.
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