A defence attorney in the Klansman trial on Thursday raised concerns that the leeway given to the Crown’s two main witnesses to testify via live video link provided the perfect cover for body language, which would betray lies that would otherwise not be missed by the sitting judge.

The two main witnesses, self-confessed ex-top-tier members of the criminal outfit, testified via live video link from a remote location during the trial, which began in September last year. The two, who both professed fear for their lives, were allowed to do so due to the strictures of the novel coronavirus pandemic and for security reasons.

But Keith Bishop, attorney for the accused Lamar Simpson, in challenging the credibility of the witnesses, said the fact that the two did not appear in the actual witness box provided an added cover for deception to pass unnoticed.

“For many centuries, judges and lawyers alike have been able to make an assessment of credibility with the witness sometimes less than 10 feet away. Due to the pandemic and, in this case, for other reasons, both [main witnesses] gave evidence by way of video link,” Bishop argued.

“This might have posed a difficulty if the quality of the video was not consistently good. Truth telling might be important to the outcome of a case. The need to make an assessment of non-spoken behaviour is critical as it is believed that liars give themselves away not only by their spoken words but through non-spoken behaviour,” the attorney said.

“Milord, my understanding is that there are two types of lying, one is to conceal and the other to falsify. The court would recall many instances when under cross-examination both witnesses told this court that they did not tell the police [certain details],” he added.

According to the attorney, the issue was even graver given that both witnesses, at times, admitted under questioning that some details to which they testified in the trial had not been told to the cops who took their statements.

Arguing that they had deliberately attempted to conceal details at varying instances, the attorney pointed to the evidence of Witness Number Two, who had said he was the banker for the gang and collected extortion monies from the Spanish Town bus park of between $80,000 and $100,000 daily. That witness, however, said he had destroyed the records of those monies on the eve of a state of emergency being declared in St Catherine. He, however, did not say what happened to the funds which he said he had kept hidden in a refrigerator in his swanky home and which bankrolled gun and bullet purchases, lawyer fees, grocery, and rental car acquisitions by the gang.

Said Bishop: “Nothing has been said about the money that was extorted; we know that the records were destroyed but nothing about the money. What about the money, did he destroy those? Or did he hand over those? I suppose the police were not told about these monies. The court can take a view as to whether or not there was a deliberate attempt to conceal.”

In February this year, Witness Number One, who had been recalled by the Crown, jarred the court with his brave request to forsake his secret location and come toe to toe with his former accomplices. The court had been poised to finally begin hearing recordings of purported incriminating conversations between the gangsters which were surreptitiously made by the witness who started working with the police undercover in 2018 to help dismantle the gang. The beginning moments of the audio from the outgoing call, which supposedly took place on April 23, 2019, was being played for a second time as the first attempt had been distorted when the witness made his startling proposal.

“Your Honour, I can recognise the voice but I still can’t hear 100 per cent clearly, I know that person is City Puss [the accused Jason Brown], but Your Honour, can I be permitted to come in the courthouse, Sir, inside the court?” the witness, who has claimed that he has had to bleach his face, change his hairstyle, and hide from the gang as he is being “hunted”, requested. The court, following an adjournment to allow for the defence and prosecutors to confer about the request, did not allow the witness, who is also in protective custody, to follow through.

Justice Minister Delroy Chuck in September last year had said witnesses testifying from remote locations should be a reality for every parish court by the end of this year.

“In essence, what you are seeing now in the Supreme Court will be possible in every parish court by 2022. It means that if the police stations can be upgraded with Internet facility, there is no need to bring the accused from the police station to the court. They could be in a witness box in the police station or in the prisons there could be a witness box and so more virtual hearings could be held across all the parishes of Jamaica. And we hope that by 2022 that will be possible,” Chuck said at the time.

In the meanwhile, the trial, which is the longest-running and largest matter of its kind in Jamaica and the Caribbean, was on Thursday adjourned to Monday, September 19 with the expectation that it will be fully dispensed with by the week of September 26.