Last night, we told you about Orlando Vera. He's the former deputy head of the National Forensic Science Services, who was sentenced to 2 years in jail for abetment to the perversion of the course of justice. The Chief Magistrate condemned his behavior as corruption, after she heard Vera on a voice recording soliciting a bribe, so that he could make Michael Modiri's firearms case go away.
But even as the sentence was being handed down, his attorney, Anthony Sylvestre, was already working on a plan to get him out of jail. He was going to apply to the Supreme Court for bail, because they have already started the process of appealing the conviction and sentence in the Magistrate's Court case.
That bail hearing happened this morning before before Justice Herbert Lord. DPP Cheryl-Lynn Vidal appeared herself to strenuously object to Vera being granted bail. On the other side, Sylvester tried to convince the judge that Vera should be out while the appeal is going through. He argued that the appeal has a reasonable prospect of success, and he attempted to walk the court through a summary of the grounds of appeal that he intends to make on Vera's behalf.
After hearing both sides, Justice Lord reserved judgement to be delivered on Tuesday afternoon. Outside of court, we got a chance to speak with Vera's attorney, and we asked him specifically about the most difficult aspect of the case - and that's the audio recording in which Vera is hearing offering the bribe. Here's how he addressed that one:
Anthony Sylvestre, Attorney for Orlando Vera
"We've applied to the supreme court for bail. The legislation does provide for a person to apply directly to the Supreme Court for bail, once he has been convicted by the magistrate court. So that is what we've done."
"One of our arguments is more of a legal technical arguments in relation to whether to what is allege to have been done was in fact actually a crime and so that is one of the points which we will argue on appeal, but what we have sought to do is to have Mr. Vera be placed on bail pending the hearing of his appeal."
Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"Sir, it seems a rather daunting challenge to try to side step or overcome what is a recording of this offence as the prosecution claims it to be and as put forward before a magistrate. It sounds as though he did a corrupt act sir."
Anthony Sylvestre, Attorney for Orlando Vera
"Well you weren't in court and I am glad you raise that, because as you may or not know that what occurs in court is the evidence obtained which a person is to be found guilty or not guilty and fortunately, I don't want to go into it because we have taken the step in which we are appealing, but there are certain objections and certain preliminary points that were taken which we intend to follow up and take as well to the supreme court."
"Certainly I do appreciate the point that it is being said that there is a recording and how will you be able to overcome that hurdle, but as I always say there are evidentiary procedural rules and on appeal we will take certain points as it relate to how the evidence was actually stored and whether it ought to have been admitted to evidence if at all."
Speaking with us after the hearing, DPP Vidal told us that she is satisfied with the conviction and sentence.
She said, quote, "It seems to me that the defense tried, from the outset, to downplay the significance of the matter because this is a matter of great importance, not just to the crown, but to the criminal justice system. Even though Orlando Vera is called as a witness for the prosecution... the fact is that he is an expert. He is an independent person, who is coming to give his opinion in his area of expertise, in relation to items that have been submitted to him... When you have the opinion of an expert, you're supposed to be able to rely on it, trust it, and act on it. And when you find out that the person who is rendering that opinion, not because of incompetence, not because of a lack of knowledge, but because of dishonesty and deception, is prepared to provide a false result, that is a terrible, terrible state of affairs. The landscape in which we prosecute at the moment... is an extremely difficult landscape. We are always fighting with the police, during investigations. We are fighting with witnesses, because they don't want to testify. Sometimes, we're fighting with the bench, as well. And, to think that the people in the system who are supposed to be neutral... must it also be that we can't trust them? Then, where do we turn to get justice?"
She also added, "We are satisfied with the sentence. We are satisfied that it was a custodial sentence, because think that the seriousness of this type of offense has to be marked... This is an expert, a person who tremendous resources have gone into training, so that the criminal justice system can be bettered, and this is the conduct that he is engaging in. I think it required a custodial sentence…"
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