Email

Print

But the person in the best position to produce solid evidence against Penner is Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie.

Viewers may remember that on March 3, Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin compelled the commissioner with a Writ of Mandamus to immediately commence an investigation against Penner so that the DPP can be presented with the file for her determination of whether or not he can be criminally charged.

Well, Kareem Musa, who was one of the attorneys who represented Opposition Leader Francis Fonseca in the Mandamus hearing, revealed to the media that lead attorney, Edwin Flowers, received a notice of Commissioner Whylie's intent to appeal the writ of Mandamus in the Court of Appeal.

COLA and Musa told us today that they interpret this move as the Commissioner still refusing to investigate Penner:

Kareem Musa - Attorney for COLA
"Unbelievable, Mike, It is totally unbelievable. It is a sad state of affairs that you have the executive arm, which is the Commissioner of Police; he is represented by the Solicitor General, who also, by the way, represents your Prime Minister, and represents all Government Officials, that office has decided to appeal. They are telling you outright; we are going to defy this order from the Supreme Court. We are defying it. We will not investigate this Minister. They are telling you point blank. I don't think you need to hear anything else from him. It is totally unbelievable."

Geovanni Brackett - President, COLA
"We appreciate the fact that the DPP has met with us. We're in communication; she will be present there tomorrow, but the media asked the Prime Minister that now that COLA has filed a private prosecution, if he or the Government will stand in the way. I don't understand how an appeal cannot be looked as standing in the way of justice. It is a sad day, and I don't understand why the Auditor General - and I know her very well; I respect her - but I believe that she should be able to act in independently, and to be able to say whether or not she will give that. When there is a surmountable amount of evidence being put forward through the media, and the police gives the impression that they refuse to investigate, that now a private citizen or an organization such as COLA has to the job of the police department, this is a shame on the police department. It's a shame on the Government." 

The reason that COLA and their attorney have taken that view is that the private prosecution against Penner has a finite number of adjournments that they can reasonably ask for from the sitting Magistrate.

This notice of appeal, coupled with the non-response from Commissioner Whylie to COLA's request that police should hand over all evidence, could mean that Penner's attorney may be able to convince the Magistrate to strike the charges out of court for lack of evidence. They suspect that there is a possibility that the police may have that "smoking gun" needed to successfully prosecute Penner, which they may need Commissioner Whylie to release. We'll keep follow how these moves affect COLA's case.

We do know that – as directed by the court police have an ongoing and soon to be finished criminal investigation.  They have interviewed over a dozen persons, including Elvin Penner – and some of the documents – we are told – have been handed over to the DPP.