Blow to Kern defence

RM refuses application for info on Chin in NHT probe

BY PAUL HENRY Observer staff reporter henryp@jamaicaobserver.com

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

SENIOR Magistrate Judith Pusey yesterday refused an application by the defence in the Cuban lightbulb case for the disclosure of information concerning the alleged role of prosecution witness Rodney Chin in what the contractor general reported as a contract fraud at the National Housing Trust (NHT).

Pusey said the disclosure could compromise the ongoing investigation into that matter.

Pusey also advised the defence to seek the relevant information during the criminal proceedings into the fraud, which saw dummy companies being created to take advantage of Government and quasi-government contracts.

The NHT scandal broke last month following an investigation by the Office of the Contractor General while Chin was on the witness stand giving evidence against former Junior Energy Minister Kern Spencer and his assistant Coleen Wright in the Cuban lightbulb trial.

Spencer and Wright have been charged with several counts of breaching the Anti-Corruption Act after irregularities were found in the distribution of four million energy-saving lightbulbs which were given to Jamaica by Cuba in 2006.

The two are said to have participated in the formation of dummy companies which were then contracted in the lightbulb distribution project. Chin was also charged along with the two but the charges were subsequently dropped after Chin became a Crown witness.

Meanwhile, Pusey will today rule on an application for the entering into evidence of a D 900I Samsung cellphone belonging to Chin.

The application made by the prosecution has been opposed by the defence, which is claiming that the phone cannot be properly identified due to discrepancies in the International Mobile Equipment Identity number recorded by a detective in the matter.

According to the prosecution, the phone was used to record conversations between Chin and Spencer when the Cuban lightbulb scandal broke in October 2007.