Belair:--- Attorney at law Peggy Ann Brandon poked several holes in the case presented by the prosecution against the suspects held in the Vesuvius investigation. Brandon made her pleadings in the makeshift Court of First Instance at the Belair Community Center on Monday in English so that all media personnel and those listening to the procedure could understand what the defense saw in the files submitted to the court. Erno Labega Jr. was escorted to the court room with a white t-shirt over his prison garb, heavily shacked by the Arrest Team of KPSM.
Brandon said the prosecution said they spent close to two million dollars to conduct the investigation yet basic legal principles were not followed. She said while she agreed with the prosecution on the amount of monies and time spent on the investigation, it is not acceptable for the prosecution to present a case with words such as "probably and potentially". The prosecution has an obligation to the court which is to find the truth and prove their cases before the court.
Attorney at Law Peggy Ann Brandon represented Erno Labega Jr. who is accused of being part of the Tan Tan gang and another organization that pushes drugs and committed other illegal activities. He is also charged with illegal gun possession. Brandon said the entire case the prosecution built against the Vesuvius suspects was based on blogs (comments) posted on SMN News (www.smn-news.com), melee, and a statement made by one of the suspects – Fleming. However, the prosecution chose to carefully cut parts of Fleming's statement in an attempt to build their case. Brandon told Judge Rick Smid that the prosecution had materials available to them just like the defense did but the materials, such as the telecommunication data, which would not help their case so they chose to leave it out. Brandon said the prosecution also used a number of anonymous witnesses which the defense did not get to question properly. In one instance, she said the questions the defense had for an anonymous witness were prepared in English but the judge of instruction forced the defense to translate their questions into Dutch and he turned off the microphone when he translated the questions to the witness. Brandon said in that particular instance they don't know if the questions they wanted to ask the witness were asked because they were obstructed by the prosecution and judge of instruction. The defense lawyer said none of the statements made by the so-called anonymous witnesses could be verified and her client used his rights to remain silent based on the instructions she gave him because he (Erno Labega Jr.) does not know what the detectives and their witnesses were talking about. "He is not part of the Tan Tan and he had no knowledge of it. Based on the road conditions, the potholes, and traffic it is impossible for Erno Labega Jr. to be at WIB Illidge Road at 2:59 and in one minute reach Dutch Quarter to commit a crime."
She said inside the file the prosecution submitted to the court and the defense it clearly states that the police themselves did not believe the story Fleming gave and even the re-construction done by the police did not match what Fleming said in his statements. However, the prosecution did not utilize this information when they presented their case to the court, they also departed from the so called "rip deal" the late Amador Jones had.
Brandon said the investigating team did not take the time to go out there and take photographs at the "Under the Sun" night club to ensure they get real evidence if they are going to ask the court to send people to prison for 10 years or more. She said she visited the night club and took various photos which she submitted to the court. Attorney at Law Brandon said that the cameras at Under the Sun was focused on the cash registers at the time of the murder of Amador Jones and not the entrance and around the club and that is one of the reasons police could not obtain camera footage from the night club that would have helped them to find the real killer of Amador Jones (cousin of Erno Labega Jr.).
Another point Brandon raised was the fact that her client was shipped out of St. Maarten and she was not informed by the prosecution while the police and investigating team broke the law when they were tapping the suspects' phones. "The judge of instruction clearly stated that he did not give instructions to tap the suspects' phones while they were in Aruba and to make matters worse when police finally received the go ahead, they broke the rules on more than one occasion. Brandon said the law clearly states that the process verbal has to be made within three days of the tapping but in this case (the tapping done in Aruba), the process verbal was made four months later. The defense lawyer said she requested those tapes and what she heard is completely different to what the prosecutor Bart den Hartigh and his colleagues heard. Besides that, they used laws that were effective in Aruba and not in St. Maarten. At the time of this investigation, phone tapping was not legalized on St. Maarten.Therefore, she pleaded with the judge to exclude all of those as evidence in the case. "The judge of instruction on St. Maarten did not authorize the phone tapping and the investigating officers were only allowed to tap for a maximum of 30 minutes while there are instances where they tapped for over an hour." She said the prosecution said her client was removed from St. Maarten for his own safety and because they were considered to be very dangerous. However, on one occasion her client along with some other Vesuvius suspects were held in a bus that broke down alongside the road in Aruba for more than hour. "The prison was called to remove the so-called dangerous prisoners off the road, they had to wait in the bus until someone went to the scene and fixed the bus for them to continue their journey. This is what I call entrapment."
Another point Brandon made with the use of a PowerPoint presentation was the location of her client on April 20th, 2011. The prosecution accused Erno Labega of being part of the Tan Tan shooting but cell tower information provided by Telcell showed that Labega was at the Windward Islands Bank on A.T Illidge Road at 2:59pm while the Tan Tan shooting took place at 3pm. Attorney at Law Peggy Ann Brandon pleaded with the judge to acquit Labega of all the charges, while she also asked that he be released immediately. Erno Labega Jr. has to return to the court on Thursday next week for the second round of the case.
Documents presented by Attorney at Law Peggy Ann Brandon in defense of Erno Labega Jr. 1
Documents presented by Attorney at Law Peggy Ann Brandon in defense of Erno Labega Jr. 2
Documents presented by Attorney at Law Peggy Ann Brandon in defense of Erno Labega Jr. 3
Documents presented by Attorney at Law Peggy Ann Brandon in defense of Erno Labega Jr. 4