Mandeville lawyers, apparently troubled by the abduction of Richard and Julia Lyn, a popular business couple, have abandoned cherished legal tradition and are refusing to represent three persons being held in connection with the foul deed, the police have complained.

As a result of unwillingness of the attorneys based in the mid-island town to take the case, police said they would transfer the accused persons to Kingston this week to seek legal representation.

“The detainees will be taken into Kingston on Wednesday so we can get them interviewed. We hope to get attorneys in Kingston,” head of the Major Investigation Task Force, Assistant Commissioner Les Green, told the Sunday Observer. “We hope they get counsel in Kingston.”

All accused persons in custody must be questioned in the presence of a lawyer or legal aid council and their conversations with the police without a lawyer present cannot be used in court.

Last week, Green had told the Sunday Observer that local lawyers were reluctant to get involved with the case. “We have a problem at the moment trying to find an attorney for them. There seems to be a reluctance on the part of local attorneys from being involved and we have to look further afield.”

The Lyns have been missing since December 10 and the police have now concentrated their search around a landfill at Martin’s Hill in Manchester. The cops say two barrels they believe to be at the dump can provide them with evidence.

“It is a very, very difficult, smelly and dirty job and the officers are conducting a search with mechanical equipment,” Green said.

The Lyns are very popular with residents in the town, and head of the Bar Association of Jamaica, John Lieba, stopped just short of saying lawyers in the town were shirking from the case because of the social status of the victims and the perceived barbarity of the crime.

“It is understandable when you have particularly heinous crimes. There is a serious problem with crime, and the society wants to see an end to it,” Lieba told the Sunday Observer.

He, however, expressed the hope that the three persons now in custody would be afforded legal representation.

“As lawyers we can’t resile from our duty. In time they will get representation,” Lieba said.

Kingston-based attorney, Gaile Walters said lawyers had a right to refuse their services to any person or potential client, despite the traditional position that all accused persons were entitled to a defence.

“It’s a personal decision, a personal choice that a lawyer has to make. There are other considerations besides the guilt or innocence of an accused person,” said Walters, who is the legal officer for the Jamaica Observer newspaper.

“A lawyer may have a conflict of interest with the potential client, or a personal interest in the other party. There is sometimes an emotional connection with the party which could prevent the lawyer from handling the case as passionately as they should,” she argued.

Walters said she knew of no canon that compelled a lawyer to take a case, and she referred to a similar situation when Kingston lawyers refused to represent the accused in the trial for the 2002 murder of attorney Shirley Playfair.

Traditional practice is that where an attorney is unwilling to represent an accused person, that person must be appointed a legal aid lawyer who is duty bound to represent the individual. Under the Legal Aid Act, the court may grant an accused person a legal aid certificate to facilitate the police interview. The order can also be made for any person who is detained.

All criminal cases where imprisonment is part of the sentence attracts legal aid, except money laundering and drug trafficking, and the service must be given to accused persons who are not represented and intend to plead not guilty in court.

However, even the legal aid lawyers are shying away from the Lyns’ case, according to police sources.

But one Mandeville-based attorney, Norman Manley, denied the police claim. Contacted for comment, Manley said: “Nobody has approached me. To that extent, what the police are saying is untrue.”

The police believe the accused persons were part of a housebreaking ring that used a truck to transport their ill-gotten goods.

Two of the detainees are Kevin Powell, Lennox Swaby, also known as ‘Son Son’ and Swaby’s 50-year-old mother, June White. Swaby and White have been charged with illegal possession of ammunition after police said they found several bullets at a house they occupied at New Green district in Manchester.

Swaby was out on bail for the 2004 murder of a 14-year-old girl whose body was found in a water tank at the time of his arrest. He was also accused of carnally abusing the teenager.

walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com