Where is the TODAY Newspaper Reports on these cases?
PHILIPSBURG:--- The prosecutor’s office has decided to dismiss one of the cases filed against the owner of the Today Newspaper and lawyer Richard Gibson Sr. who was accused by a teenager for touching her inappropriately while she was sleeping over at Gibson’s house.
The case was filed almost a year ago by the child and her parents, however, in April 2015 the Prosecutor’s Office dispatched a letter to the young woman and her mother informing them that after the investigation was completed by the National Detectives they have decided to dismiss the case and not prosecute for the lack of evidence that a crime was committed. In an invited comment press prosecutor Karola van Nie said in an email response to the questions posed by SMN News that “The other case, where the girl filed a complaint, that case was investigated by the Landsrecherche. The Prosecutor’s Office, based on the investigation and the file, came to the conclusion that further prosecution would not be successful, because there is not enough evidence that a crime has been committed. Therefore the case has been dismissed. We indeed informed the mother and her daughter and pointed out that if they don’t agree with our decision, they have the option to start an Article 15 (Wetboek van Strafvordering) procedure, which means they can turn to the High Court to ask to review our decision. To my knowledge this has not been done so far.”
Van Nie further stated that the complaint that was filed against Gibson Sr. for signing for a national of the Dominican Republic who is residing on the French side is still under investigation and that investigation is not yet completed.
It should be noted that Gibson Sr. filed for working documents for someone that was residing on the French side as a messenger while the person never worked for him. The first request was submitted and granted in 2013. In 2014 the working documents were due to expire in September 2014. Gibson Sr. resubmitted the renewal application in June 2014 while the documents would have expired in September 2014. A relative of Gibson Sr. told SMN News that this person never worked for Gibson but her mother was working for him as his housekeeper, and while the person was not working for Gibson Sr. and she was residing on the French side the person had full medical coverage and other benefits. The relative further stated that after the complaint was filed and the investigation kicked off Gibson had the person showing up at his house as of January 2015 for three days per week. Due to these investigations Gibson failed the screening to become Minister of Finance and he resigned from the board of the CFT.
While SMN News reported all of this the editor of the Today Newspaper who constantly harasses SMN News reporter never reported anything on these complaints, the fact that his boss failed the screening because of the complaints and the reason he chose to resign from the board of the CFT. The question one has to now ask where is the journalistic skills of the Today Newspaper editor in chief when it comes to these articles. Why is he spending his day on SMN News which he considers a gossip site and why did he tell his boss that he could not write anything on GEBE because it was reported by SMN News and he could not touch it because SMN News would go after him for plagiarizing their website? Why did the same editor in chief hunt down former Minister Maria Buncamper Molanus who he basically prosecuted and convicted with his vicious newspaper articles, not to mention the articles he wrote on former Minister of Justice Roland Duncan, is the Today Newspaper editor targeting people he does not like or who would stand up to him or is he really reporting the news fairly on St. Maarten?
Transparency International gave the media on St. Maarten, namely the two newspapers a very low rating, stating that reporters working for the newspapers do not conduct investigative reporting most of all because they are foreigners that depend on politicians. The Today Newspaper in their article boasted about bringing down former Minister Maria Buncamper Molanus and former Minister of Justice Roland Duncan. If one should turn back the pages they will see that Roland Duncan resigned when the government fell during the last term, so far there is no known investigation against the former Minister of Justice or at least none has been made known by the Prosecution.
