A stand-off between Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn and defence attorneys yesterday forced the cancellation of the examination of three Samsung cellular phones belonging to prosecution witness Rodney Chin in the Kern Spencer lightbulb case.

The attorneys who are representing Spencer, the former junior energy minister, and his assistant Coleen Wright, had on Wednesday successfully gained the permission of Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey for the phones to be examined by their analyst. The lawyers argued that they did not trust the authenticity of recordings presented to them by the prosecution.

The examination was scheduled to be conducted inside the computer room at the Organised Crime Investigative Department (OCID) headquarters in downtown Kingston yesterday in the presence of Llewellyn, other members of her staff, OCID cybercrimes expert Detective Sergeant Patrick Linton and clerk of the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court. Head of OCID Superintendent Fitz Bailey was also present.

But midway through the examination there was a stand-off between Llewellyn and the lawyers after she objected to attempts to examine material not related to the case, resulting in the cancellation of the analysis.

Both parties rushed to the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court to seek a resolution from Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey. However, they left the court empty-handed as Pusey was ill and instructed them to return to court this morning.

On Tuesday, Pusey ruled that the examination of the instruments should only involve material directly related to the Cuban lightbulb trial in which Spencer and Wright are facing money-laundering and corruption charges.

The phones, which have already been entered into evidence, were returned to the custody of the court.

Chin, who had testified that he recorded phone conversations between himself, Spencer and the mother of Spencer’s child, Shereen Shakes, had charges against him dropped after he agreed to give evidence against Spencer.