–refuses to provide statement to legal affairs committee

CHAIRMAN of the Legal Affairs Committee (LAC), Councillor Sherod Duncan on Monday pointed out that although the matter involving the 15-year-old boy and Constabulary officers occurred between August 22 and 23, the committee was only informed of the matter on September 13.  Duncan’s disclosure was in response to Town Clerk Royston King’s allegation that  the committee was ‘slothful’ in investigating the matter, when in fact he  did not forward it to the committee until about three weeks after the incident.

“Matters are not coming to the committee in a timely manner, and then we are being accused of being slothful,” Duncan remarked at City Hall’s statutory meeting on Monday. “Matters are not coming to the committee in a timely manner, and then we are being accused of being slothful,” Duncan remarked at City Hall’s statutory meeting on Monday.

He said, too, that while the juvenile was questioned by King, no report has been forthcoming from him to date as to what transpired during the meeting in his office. “There were at least five persons who were supposed to be on duty, because they had signed the timesheet or whatever,” Duncan said, adding:“And we asked for them to submit reports to the committee; we have not seen them yet.

The committee is not going to be taking any blame for what is transpiring at the level of the Town Clerk.“Any legislation that is suggested and tabled should at least have a first reading, a first hearing, in the Legal Affairs Committee. I have noted that some matters come before the committee, and some do not.”

According to him, the committee had already taken various reports, conducted several interviews with officers from the Constabulary, and was in the process of wrapping up its investigations “when the Town Clerk blindsided us by his actions.”

KING REFUTES

But King, in response, denied that he interviewed or interrogated the child, and as such there was no need for him to provide any statement. “The juvenile was sent to my office for me to see the individual. I asked him his name and I asked him his age,” King said.“We were having a meeting when the young man was sent to my office. The Town Clerk couldn’t give a statement; the Town Clerk is not investigating this matter,” he added.       Mayor Patricia Chase-Green has noted that even at the level of the investigation, there were many lapses. “That’s why I say the whole entire downstairs must be reshuffled,” she said.

Chase-Green said the committee has been granted permission to continue its work, and is expected to bring its recommendation to the Council.

Meanwhile, other councillors agreed with Duncan that King should provide a statement to the committee, since he had contact with the juvenile.  Just last week, King sacked two city constabulary officers whose names were called in the sex scandal involving the juvenile. The decision to fire the officers, Lance Corporal Clifton Pellew and Quacy Baveghems, came one day after the Mayor called on the Legal Affairs Committee to do a thorough investigation and to obtain the additional statements it needed and were not taken earlier.      Chase-Green had even refused to entertain a discussion on the matter last week Monday, citing that there had been lots of lapses in the entire matter so far, and that the full council would only be allowed to deliberate on the issue when the Legal Affairs Committee comes forward with its decision.

Public Relations Officer at the City Council, Debra Lewis, had also told the Guyana Chronicle that new information had surfaced.

“I am blindsided, utterly surprised, shocked and disgusted that as a Councillor and Chairman of the Legal Affairs and Security Committee that a matter which was submitted to the committee, and which the committee is still looking at, is being dealt with now unilaterally,” Duncan had shared on social media.

“Why now? The Town Clerk interviewed the alleged victim in his office and submitted no report to the committee on what transpired. Should he be sent home as well? Justice has fallen,” Duncan, who also posted the dismissal letters of Pellew and Baveghems, said.       The Guyana Chronicle understands that the juvenile was allegedly approached by the officer in the wee hours of the morning and made to engage in the act.

The chief constable told this newspaper last week that although he was aware that the lance corporal at reference faced a similar matter in 2016, everyone is deemed innocent until they are proven guilty. Pellew’s 2016 matter was reportedly dropped, because the victim did not pursue it.