The anatomy of a fabricated statement

St James men freed of murder charge; cop on the run

BY PAUL HENRY Crime/Court Desk co-ordinator henryp@jamaicaobserver.com

Saturday, February 04, 2012

IN September of 2006, Detective Sergeant Michael Sirjue was faced with a scenario that most homicide investigators across the island face: A murder, a hesitant eyewitness, and the possibility that the suspects may not be brought to justice.

But Sirjue was determined that he would assist Lady Justice, not foreseeing how his action could backfire and call to question the integrity of the justice system.

Sirjue, it is reported, received three names from Artley Campbell, who on September 10, 2006 reportedly witnessed the murder of his friend, Salt Spring, St James resident Robert Green. The detective also learned of the circumstances of Green's murder from Campbell; though he was hesitant about giving a formal statement.

Campbell, who operated a cook shop beside Green, had all right to be scared. As far as he could tell, the men suspected to have committed the murders were Eldon Calvert, who is the reputed head of the deadly Stone Crusher gang, his brother Gleason Calvert, and Michael Heron.

Armed with the information from Campbell, the 26-year police veteran reportedly proceeded with his plan, preparing an eight-page statement which fingered the men as Green's killers. At the bottom of each page, Sirjue affixed the signature A Campbell (as if Campbell had given and signed the statement) and dated the pages 14.11.06 (November 14, 2006).

But 24 hours before that statement was reportedly written and signed by Sirjue, Campbell was shot to death at his cook shop in Meggie Top in Salt Spring.

When Sirjue later learnt of Campbell's murder, he did not allow it to deter him and so, it is reported, he altered the November date on the forged statement to read 14.10.2006 (October 14, 2006).

Had it been a few years earlier, the statement would have been useless in court, but the Evidence Act was amended to allow statements to be entered into evidence where a witness is dead or otherwise unavailable to the court.

The amendment was driven by the fact that more and more accused murderers were escaping justice after witnesses were killed and found to be missing.

His investigation complete, Sirjue turned the files over to the prosecuting authority. Heron and Gleason Calvert's arrests were followed by that of Eldon Calvert's in 2008.

The case file was also disclosed to the defence lawyers in the matter who thought that there was something odd about the date on the statement.

"...We could see that what was 14.10.06, the left hand side of the zero on the 10 was a little thick, seeming to suggest that it had been an 11," attorney Roy Fairclough told the Observer yesterday.

Not leaving anything to chance, Fairclough and the other defence attorneys -- Trevor Ho Lyn, Tamika Spence and Chumu Paris -- contracted the services of handwriting expert Beverly East.

Armed with East's report, which the prosecution knew nothing of, the defence was ready for trial, which started on Monday. The prosecution would be blindsided.

On the day the in -camera trial started, Sirjue testified under oath that, among other things, eyewitness Campbell was murdered on December 16.

The prosecution attempted to put the statement into evidence. However, the defence objected, noting that it had evidence that the statement was a fake. The jurors were sent out of the courtroom to facilitate a voir dire (a trial within a trial) to determine the authenticity of the statement.

The prosecution was served with Beverly East's report, which stated in part that the writer of the statement (Sirjue) was also the writer of the purported signature. An adjournment was granted for the prosecution to have its own analysis done on the statement. The result from the prosecution's expert concurred with East's report.

On Wednesday, the report of the Crown's examination was made to Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Paula Llewellyn, QC. The DPP, in turn, recommended to Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington that charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice and uttering a forged document be brought against the detective.

Yesterday, the DPP had no choice but to discontinue prosecution of the men, "in the interest of justice". The jurors were directed to offer a formal verdict of not guilty. However, only Gleason Calvert was released yesterday as Eldon Calvert and Heron are facing other murder charges. Calvert and Orrette Grant is charged with Campbell's murder. The men are to face the court on February 8.

A warrant was also issued for the arrest of Sirjue, who the court was told yesterday, left the island on Wednesday for Florida, USA.

Going forward, Llewellyn said that her office will now submit for analysis all statements in cases where the sole eyewitness is deceased.

Justice Gloria Smith, who presided over the matter, said that it was a "very sad day" in the history of justice in Jamaica. "The justice system is not here to be manipulated by anyone. We can't undermine the one system that stands between the society and anarchy," said Smith.

An audit is currently being done by the police in relation to other statements handled by Sirjue.

The case is the second such to be unravelled in four years following Detective Constable Carey Lyn-Sue's 2008 admission that he fabricated statements to help convict an alleged criminal. Sirjue was Lyn-Sue's supervisor.

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The anatomy of a fabricated statement