THE SHANE GIBSON TRIAL CONTINUES

All eyes will soon turn on the Judge in the case against Shane Gibson. She is Carlita Bethel, the wife of Ferron Bethel. Mr. Bethel is an FNM ideologue and a member of the Bahamas Power and Light Board that survived he purge of the first Board by the FNM Minister.  That means she is married to a hard core FNM. She will have to make a judicial decision about whether or not the case against Shane Gibson will go forward or not. That will be at the case when the defense is asked to say whether or not the case should be stopped or continue. There are two limbs at which the case can be stopped: first that there is no evidence on the elements of the offences charged to sustain the charge and so as matter of law, the case must fail.  The second limb is even where there is evidence, the evidence is so contradictory and the witnesses so manifestly unreliable that the evidence cannot be relied upon and so the case should be dismissed. The question is when the submissions are made what will she do?  Here is what we know so far. We know that Jonathan Ash, the virtual complainant and the  main witness upon whom the crown has hung its hat is a liar.  He has contradicted himself so many times in the evidence that you cannot count them. You also know that  the police presented only half the story with regard to the What’s App conversations between Mr. Ash and Mr. Gibson.  They did a similar thing in the case against Frank Smith. We know that the police witness Assistant Superintendent Deborah Thompson agreed that she had tampered with the witness statements. She also agreed that she did not follow the police manual on how to deal with witnesses. Sooo. What does that look like to you. The crown is about to rest. Then we hear from the defence. Will this go to jury or will the Judge make the decision plain and obvious on its face?