FAKE STANDOFF?

There is now brew­ing ten­sion between the legal team rep­re­sent­ing Shanique Myrie and the Barbados author­i­ties. Reports com­ing out of Barbados are that the Barbados gov­ern­ment is object­ing to what it says is an attempt to block Myrie from being ques­tioned. Meanwhile, attor­neys rep­re­sent­ing Myrie have been com­plain­ing about that coun­try’s delay in allow­ing her to return to iden­ti­fy those whom she accused of vio­lat­ing her privacy.On March 14, Myrie was report­ed­ly sub­ject­ed to being cav­i­ty searched and denied entry to Barbados when she arrived at the Grantley Adams International Airport.It is report­ed that Myrie’s attor­neys have accused the Barbados author­i­ties of try­ing to cov­er up the issue. However, Anthony Hylton, Myrie’s lead attor­ney, is insist­ing that the mat­ter is not a polit­i­cal issue and thus should be treat­ed as a legal mat­ter between Myrie and those she said vio­lat­ed her. Hylton is report­ed­ly still await­ing an offi­cial invite from the Barbados gov­ern­ment about the terms of Myrie appear­ing in that coun­try, to iden­ti­fy the peo­ple she has said cav­i­ty searched her.(Jamaica star.)

We com­ment­ed on this case in a blog titled Jamaica Vs. Barbados post­ed on August 8^th 2011.

As we com­ment­ed then, we do not know whether the charges made against Barbadian Authorities by Ms. Myrie are found­ed or not , and as such we will draw no con­clu­sions on the mer­its or demer­its of this par­tic­u­lar case.

What seem to be odd, is that after all of the hoopla sor­round­ing this case, and the atten­dant con­dem­na­tion of the Barbadian author­i­ties by Jamaicans, Miss myrie’s Lawyers still has not arranged for her to get back to Barbados to point out those who she claimed abused her.

If Ms. Myrie is telling the truth about what she claimed hap­pened to her, what is the rea­son for the objec­tion on the part of her lawyers to hav­ing her ques­tioned by Barbadian officials?

She is the accuser, and as such Barbadian author­i­ties have every right to demand that they have a chance to inter­view her . If she is being truth­ful , what is the foun­da­tion for her lawyers block­ing Barbadian offi­cials from try­ing to deter­min­ing the verac­i­ty of her state­ments ? Statements by the way, that can poten­tial­ly destroy law enforce­ment offi­cials lives, by effec­tive­ly putting them in prison.

An accused per­son has no respon­si­bil­i­ty to give a state­ment to clear his or her name, the bur­den of proof is on the accuser. 

Those priv­iledges are not extend­ed to Miss Myrie, and her Attorneys must know that . She is the accuser.

Any attempt at argu­ing that they are await­ing an invite from Barbadian Authorities, seem at best to be a red her­ring, and does noth­ing for the image of their client.

Whatever the real cir­cum­stances of this case, it is evi­dent offi­cials in Barbados will not throw their law enforce­ment offi­cials under the bus.

Jamaican Lawyers now seem a lit­tle tak­en-aback by this and seem to be grop­ing for a way forward.

They are not used to hav­ing to adhere to any pro­to­cols, cops in Jamaica are sum­mar­i­ly offered up as sac­ri­f­i­cal lambs to divert atten­tion from Governmental fail­ures incom­pe­tence, and corruption.

mike beck­les:

how say you: