WESTERN BUREAU – The police in St James are stepping up investigations into death threats levelled against the People’s National Party (PNP) councillor for the Railway Gardens Division Milton Russell.

Deputy Superintendent Cleon March, the parish’s crime chief, said this week that the holidays had left the police unable to locate some council employees for questioning.

“The holiday period has prevented us from accelerating the pace of the investigation, particularly because of the unavailability of some of the witnesses,” March told the Observer.

But with the start of the new year, he said that problem would be remedied as council employees would be back at work.

“We still have a few more persons to interview before we can determine who the persons (responsible for the threats) are… A lot of them (council employees) will be returning to work (now that the new year has begun) and we will continue the interviews,” he said.

“The investigations have been progressing smoothly and we anticipate doing a bit more in the very near future,” the crime chief added.

The death threats against Russell reportedly came after he revealed that a number of parish council employees had fraudulently converted a cheque, valued at $50,000, that was made payable to a road contractor.

“After I reported the matter to the mayor (Noel Donaldson), several persons called me and said that I should have left the matter alone, and ever since that time I have been receiving death threats,” Russell told the Observer early last month.

On December 16 Russell received a note: “You will have nine days to live”. The councillor had gone to the council offices to clear his mailbox when he discovered the note inside his box.

Now, the police are faced with the task of identifying the culprit responsible for the note. Once that is done, Deputy Superintendent March said, that person would be warned against carrying out their threat and Russell would be advised to take civil action.

“It is a death threat so the investigation is criminal. We have to make sure that it does not happen,” the deputy superintendent said.

In the interim, two council employees have been suspended in connection with the fraudulent conversion of the cheque. However, no formal charges have been laid against them and there is no indication when, or even if, they will be formally charged.

“The fact that they were suspended is an internal matter. If they are found (criminally) culpable at the end of the day, we will press charges… That is being investigated by the fraud squad…” March said.

Meanwhile, Russell said he continues to be concerned about his safety, particularly since he has received additional threats. He told the Observer this week that the last threat came just about a week ago, via telephone.

“Even though I have an idea who is making the threats, I don’t know how serious they are. Even though the police say that they are on top of things I don’t know what that means… I don’t know what is happening to the extent that I hardly leave my community…” he said.

Added Russell: “I don’t want to give the impression that I am totally afraid of going out . But I have taken the necessary precautions to ensure that whenever I have to go anywhere that I have people around me to help to guarantee my safety.”

In addition to dealing with the threats against his life, he said he is having to cope with growing resentment at the parish council.

“I have been coming under deep resentment from people at the council ever since this thing. Sometimes I can’t even speak freely… Whenever people from my division go down there, there are people at the council who say they are not willing to do anything for me because I am the one who mash up the council,” he said.