Press Conference Answering Marvin Dames
From the Nassau Guardian:
6 December 2019
Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Fred Mitchell said yesterday that Minister of National Security Marvin Dames must address concerns the party has with investigative practices in the country.
Mitchell was responding to Dames’ defense of Assistant Superintendent of Police Debra Thompson.
During the bribery trial of former PLP Cabinet minister Shane Gibson, Thompson testified that she held a joint meeting with key witness Jonathan Ash and public servant Deborah Bastian, who had worked closely with Gibson, to “synchronize” their statements.
Thompson testified that the meeting was wrong in hindsight.
Gibson was acquitted of the charges.
The PLP has called for a review of all of Thompson’s cases.
Dames said her integrity is “impeccable”.
But Mitchell said, “Ordinary men and women are charged every day and the police officer says that this is a practice that they do all the time.
“If this were the United States, I am certain that these matters involving all cases in which this particular officer was involved would have been reviewed by now to see whether or not those convictions were safe and reliable.”
He called on Dames to correct the problem.
“This is not emotional and this is not personal to him,” Mitchell said.
“This is a matter of our system. It’s been discovered that our system has a problem. If he continues to be the minister of national security, he has some responsibility to correct that problem, not to pronounce that the wrongdoing is right doing. And that’s the issue.”