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Jean Delangis and Robert Richardson Versus the Duecks Described as a Mistake

A follow up on the To DPP Charles Leacock: Why Did you Drop the Case Against the Duecks? story which BU carried and is quoted below. The Sunday Sun of October 16, 2016 on page 36A titled Couple free at last, answers the question as to why Director of Public Prosecutions Charles Leacock discontinued the…

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Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith
Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith

A follow up on the To DPP Charles Leacock: Why Did you Drop the Case Against the Duecks? story which BU carried and is quoted below. The Sunday Sun of October 16, 2016 on page 36A titled Couple free at last, answers the question as to why Director of Public Prosecutions Charles Leacock discontinued the matter. To be accurate, this is according to the Dueck’s lawyers.

The Dueck’s lawyers Barry Gale and Andrew Pilgrim are quoted a saying “This was a case where there was in the first place never any evidence to support any criminal charges against either Barry Dueck or his wife Barbara. Regrettably criminal charges were brought by the police based on misinformation and, critically the omission of important evidence. This resulted tragically in a gross miscarriage of justice and their wrongful arrest and detention“. They added ” It is clear that the Duecks have suffered tremendously both personally and financially as a result of this unwarranted criminal process which was instigated by the virtual complainant.” According to earlier newspaper reports the complainants were Jean Delangis of 411 St Peter’s Bay, Road View, St Peter and Robert Richardson of 10 Forest Hills, Royal Westmoreland, St James.

  1. Is it only the BU household who is concerned about how the case against the Duecks has panned out?
  2. What flawed due diligence informed the decision to log the case by the Barbados Police Force in an overburdened Barbados Court?
  3. Is there an issue of accountability to be brought against the officers responsible?

Who are the complainants Jean Delangis and Robert Richardson. Why were they allowed to instigate this matter against the Duecks?

dueck1

To DPP Charles Leacock: Why Did you Drop the Case Against the Duecks?

by David on October 4, 2016 in Barbados News

Many Barbadians read the story that appeared in yesterday’s media Charges dropped against couple with some interest including members of the BU household. Why did Director of Public Prosecutions Charles Leacock QC drop the matter against Barry and Barbara Dueck? You mean to say not even one charge could have been prosecuted out of the […]

25 responses to “Jean Delangis and Robert Richardson Versus the Duecks Described as a Mistake”

  1. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    When are we going to get rid of this Guyana-born DPP?

  2. mr doangvafak Avatar
    mr doangvafak

    SMH. I ent gv a fack who gone free bout hey.. I know of an employee dat had a problem wid a wrongful dismissal from a diplomatic mission here in Bim. Evabody .including Owen , he PS Chandler, the MFA big up the billy goat, de Boulay Ford, Simmonds de AG, d chief of protocol partly de hole uh Bim did know and not a facking word from wunnah. D mission move to T&T not a cent fuh d woman up tuh now. D billy goat seh dcwoman wld create embarrassment bnt between de mission country and Bim

  3. David Avatar
    David

    Why not you name the mission? Perhaps it was not generally known? You perpetuate the same nonsense by protecting the agency in question?

  4. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    It’s obvious those 2 Canadian crooks opened their own central bank in Barbados and were doing as they liked because they are all well aware of the stupid weak leaders in parliament, it’s a standing joke in Canada.

    The money was paid back and the government dont want anymore embarassing international reports on how they allow foreign white criminals to commit as many crimes, once they pretend to have money and to do as they like in Barbados.

    Pilgrim cannot polish it up enough to change the truth.

    The weaknesses in the leaders in parliament have made the island a laughing stock and a blight and pox on the Caribbean.

  5. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    WW&C 5:55 AM

    Do you mean the leaders in Parliament or the Supervisors of the Financial System.?
    I think you should know that enforcement of the law is not a function of the Parliamentarians.

  6. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Bernard…they are one and the same…though supposed to be separate and distinct as you or I would know them in the real world, you are talking about a small incestous society, with a minister of finance, no checks and balances in place….and everything is political.

    Example…Cahill scam..5 or 6 givernment ministers involved, with signatures.

    Del Mastros scam…..Dumbville Inniss, minister of international business involved and whomever else from governmnt.

    Dont for one minute fool yourself that whites are going into the island claiming to be wealthy, setting up scams and most of the government ministers do not know about it or are not signing off on it….

  7. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    @ WW&C

    If only we in this country take responsibility and perform the tasks for which we are paid this country would revert to the high esteem which it once had. The roles are separate and distinct.The Parliamentarians past laws and the various arms of the Public Service enforce them. And there are sanctions for those who do not enforce the laws. The CB of Barbados, The FSC, those who regulate the offshore financial centre, those who monitor money laundering etc.
    If the citizens of this country allow our reputation for law and order deteriorate ,then we deserve the type of country we have. Belly aching ,and spewing vitriol is not going to make the problems disappear.

  8. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Bernard…it’s only the people can put pressure on the ministers to put pressure on the civil servants to put pressure on these governmental and statutory boards to stop taking bribes and do their jobs..

    ……….l.of course they can all ignore the people who pay their salaries and of course the country will sink into anarchy. ..

    I find too many people are too distracted by the unimportant to even notice what the ministers and all the other players are doing to secure their own bank accounts..while destroying the country and it’s once stellar reputation.

    People should be protesting in the streets as we speak, but they are accepting of those atrocious, destructive behaviors and most of them do not even have a way off the island.

  9. Exclaimer Avatar
    Exclaimer

    @ David,

    It’s time for BU to become more proactive. Often we talk about scams that have already been perpetuated. Let’s be more creative. I propose that we create a pending top twenty list of future scams that may be heading our way. Such a list would minimise the economic damage to the fabric of our country.

    We would at a stroke decimate the links of collusion between a corrupt government and an equally corrupt business community.

    We the people should become the “Big brother” of our nation and make it clear to the “big shots” that they are under surveillance.

  10. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    Well Well

    A retired senior civil servant told me that he had to get out, he could not take these morons anymore.

    He said that he found the Bees to be easier to work with, they would listen even if they said we would make the final decision……..he said they were far more intelligent and willing to learn from the civil servants than these dems. he said that they came in with a “we won, we in charge, get over it” attitude and it rubbed a lot of public workers the wrong way.

    They believed that the ministry assigned to them is theirs and they set out to micro manage. So you may have a point.

  11. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Prodigal…the dude was telling the truth, the stories are horrendous, that is why when any scandals of scams are exposed to the public…the Minister’s names are always being called, there are no filters in place to stop them getting involved in these fly by night scams, no layers of people to prevent the Bizzys, Maloneys, Cows, Del Mastros etc from having direct access to the ministers, it’s too easy for minorites to penetrate government, approach ministers and make demands….

    …..they do not act like they run a government, they act as though they are just waiting for the first call to get involved in a scheme….that is because they been doing that for too long.

    They want to be called and be involved in everything, they are supposed to get daily reports as real leaders do and make intelligent decisions to benefit the PEOPLE, the taxpayers, the whole country, but these are all hands in everything until the scandals break.

  12. Nostradamus Avatar
    Nostradamus

    Would be nice if someone could anonymously e mail David photos of Jean Delangis and Robert Richardson. Seems only fair that we see all the actors in this matter. The Dueck’s counsel claim that “criminal charges were brought by the police based on misinformation and, critically the omission of important evidence”.

    Did the complainants Jean Delangis and Robert Richardson deliberately mislead local authorities as is being suggested by the Dueck’s lawyers?

  13. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    More importantly. ..isn’t trading in those large sums of money of any kind outside of the central bank constitute money laundering on the island.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    It is amazing the traditional media has not seen the fairness in posting the pictures of the Delangis and Roberson.

  15. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    This country reeks of corruption from the top down to the bottom.

    How are we ever going to restore grace, dignity and integrity back into the goverance of this country?

  16. David Avatar
    David

    https://www.facebook.com/krystle.marshall/videos/10154453039006488/

  17. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    @ Hal Austin October 17, 2016 at 3:28 AM #

    “When are we going to get rid of this Guyana-born DPP”?
    …………………………………………………..

    Maybe now we can understand why the government stubbornly brought the amendment bill to the House recently despite the fact that the Opposition told them that they would not support the amendment. You do remember that the PM went ballistic that the government was defeated………we saw a side of him that we never saw before.

    We can safely conclude that there had to be a reason why …………

  18. David Avatar
    David

    @Prodigal Son

    Yes it was strange of the government to bring the matter to the House knowing it would have been defeated. What was required from the government, more negotiation. It is how the Whips earn their pay.

    >

  19. David Avatar
    David

    False report

    Student fined for lying about fractured hand

    A Christ Church man has four months to pay $2,000 or he will spend six months in jail. Magistrate Douglas Frederick imposed the sentence on Greg Omar Jackman, 29, of #3 Callington Lane, Gall Hill after he pleaded guilty in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court to wasting the employment of the police by knowingly making a false report to Police Constable Nicko Wiltshire that serious bodily harm had been committed against him.

    he facts presented by police prosecutor Sergeant Neville Watson revealed that the accused, a student at the Barbados Vocational Training Board, made a report on October 14 around 7:15 a.m. to the police, claiming that he was injured by another party and had sustained a fractured hand.

    Police launched an investigation into the matter, which entailed a visit to the area where the offence allegedly occurred, as well as interviews of persons and recorded statements.

    However, it was discovered that while the accused did receive an injury, it did not occur in the way he reported to police.

    It was discovered that Jackman was involved in a fight with another person and that he was the aggressor in that matter and “evidence by

    . . . CCTV footage clearly established that”.

    “In fact, [it] showed the accused inflicting blows, as we say in Barbados, cuffs to the head and the face of another person who has since complained and sought medical attention,” Watson said.

    “To support what he reported to the police, he produced documentation from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and a medical report which was given to him by investigators.”

    When officials told the accused of their findings, “he came clean”.

    Jackman, who is known to the law courts for theft and other charges, told Frederick: “I am sorry that this happened. I am sorry that I made a false statement.”

    The magistrate replied: “This is a fairly complex thing that you are charged with. This is really serious and complicated and presenting papers from the doctor and things like that this is serious . . . . You are only 29, but you have racked up a number of convictions; and now this.”

    “You are on the threshold of prison. I don’t want you to go in, that’s the truth . . . [but] the fact that you are trying to do something positive with your life [by going to school] I do not want to derail that,” Douglas said as he imposed the fine.

    “That’s the best I can do for you. The rest is up to you.”

    http://www.barbadostoday.bb/2016/10/18/false-report/

  20. Nostradamus Avatar
    Nostradamus

    David,

    A refreshing instance of good Police investigation. So if the Police can bring a case against Greg Omar Jackman for “wasting the employment of the police by knowingly making a false report to Police” and if as alleged by the Dueck’s lawyers that in their case, “criminal charges were brought by the police based on misinformation”, will the Police be bringing a case against the complainants in relation to the Dueck’s ?

  21. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Nostradamus
    You always compare apples with apples….
    Are you thinking that Greg O Jackman is a white Canadian who appears to be wealthy and moves in upper circles in Barbados?

  22. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    So…commonsense dictates that the accusers could not have filed false statements/charges against the Delangis couple as the laws in Barbados are very clear about filing false statements to the police, very clear….and we do not want to accuse the police of not charging the other couple involved for wasting their time because they are what bajans call “white”.

    But we can state unequivocally that given the litany of charges against the Canadian couple that those charges would have to be true, most of them, or the accused couple would have filed charges against their accusers for false allegations…then the police would have to charge the couple with filing false charges and wssting their time…but that did not happen did it.

    And the DPP did not think they should be charged for illegally running a central bank on the island…but who is surprised.

    As I said…..Pilgrim cannot polish this one up enough to change the truth.

  23. Bigger Fish To Fry Avatar
    Bigger Fish To Fry

    I wish same thing will happen in Barbados with its dishonest cops especially in the Fraud Squad Unit known for working with and taking bribes from criminals.

    Judge says cop’s testimony doesn’t pass smell test

    The gun charge against Stephon Mack hinged on the testimony of Chicago police Officer Damen Balesteri.

    If a Cook County judge found the longtime officer a credible witness, Mack was likely to be convicted for not having a state firearms card for the gun found in his car — a 9 mm Glock semi-automatic handgun with 26 bullets in the magazine and another in the chamber.

    It was a relatively minor charge in a city awash in gun violence, but the police view Mack as a dangerous gang member.

    At a court hearing in February, Balesteri testified he and his partner arrested Mack in August 2015 after their vehicles slowly passed one another on the city’s South Side.

    According to a transcript, Balesteri said he had smelled marijuana in the other vehicle.

    Marijuana that was not lit but fresh. Marijuana that police later found in a small bag in the pants pocket of Mack’s passenger. About 7 grams of marijuana — the weight of about a dozen small paper clips.

    In court papers, Mack’s lawyer, Stuart Goldberg, called Balesteri’s testimony a “Cirque du Soleil olfactory feat” worthy of drug-sniffing police canines but not humanly possible because the cars passed for perhaps a second or so.

    Prosecutor Rory Quinn stood by Balesteri’s testimony.

    Over 125K complaints against more than 25K Chicago cops
    Over 125K complaints against more than 25K Chicago cops
    Circuit Court Judge Steven Watkins, though, discredited the officer’s testimony and threw out the evidence, dooming the prosecution’s case.

    “I don’t believe his testimony at all that he smelled this fresh cannabis coming from the vehicle,” the transcript quoted Watkins as saying.

    Since then the Police Department’s internal affairs bureau investigated Balesteri but closed the inquiry because there was no complainant and “not enough independent evidence,” according to a police spokesman.

    A Tribune investigation earlier this year found that Chicago police officers routinely gave false or questionable testimony but rarely were punished for their actions. The result: Innocent people are convicted, the guilty are sometimes allowed to go free and the criminal justice system is tarnished.

    Determining whether an officer lied on the witness stand or was simply mistaken can be difficult; a judge’s ruling does not necessarily mean that an officer intentionally testified falsely. Nonetheless, police officials and prosecutors make little effort to root out officers singled out by judges for false testimony.

    More stories: Chicago’s Cop Crisis
    More stories: Chicago’s Cop Crisis
    In response to the Tribune investigation, the state’s attorney’s office said its Professional Standards Unit had begun reviewing cases in which officers’ testimony had been called into question by judges. Sally Daly, spokeswoman for State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, said the review was continuing.

    Until the Tribune’s investigation, the state’s attorney’s office did not routinely issue what are commonly called “disclosure notices,” court documents that officially notify criminal defense lawyers that a judge has found an officer’s courtroom testimony not credible.

    The office also was not notifying police departments about their officers’ questionable testimony.

    But the state’s attorney’s office has now begun to issue the notices, providing a new window into the dimensions of a persistent problem.

    Since the Tribune’s investigation in May, prosecutors have issued notices in more than a dozen cases involving at least four officers, including Balesteri.

    The notice on Balesteri was issued in August, alerting defense lawyers with cases involving the officer as a potential witness and informing them that Watkins had discredited the officer’s testimony in Mack’s case.

    Reached by the Tribune, Balesteri, a 22-year department veteran, said he had “an opinion regarding this case” but that department policy barred him from commenting.

    Balesteri, assigned to a gang enforcement unit, and partner Bradley Ruzak stopped Mack shortly after midnight Aug. 11, 2015, after the two cars passed one another in the 5700 block of South Throop Street. The two officers said in reports and testimony that they noticed Mack was not wearing a seat belt and that his red Jeep Cherokee was missing its front license plate. Police reports filed in the case said Mack, then 18, acknowledged he belonged to the Gangster Disciples street gang.

    In December, Goldberg sought to throw out the arrest and evidence, calling into question the credibility of the officers.

    “The incipient fairy tale of this case originated with the remarkable olfactory accomplishment of CPD officers Ruzak and Balesteri — each without canine degrees in smell detection — boasting the improbable feat of ‘smelling an odor of fresh cannabis emitting from the vehicle’ as their squad car passed them in the heat of the night,” Goldberg wrote in the court filing. “Keep in mind — NOT the recognizable odor of burnt cannabis but FRESH CANNABIS.”

    Goldberg contended that Mack and his passenger, Michael Boykin, had already gotten out of the Jeep and started walking away before police stopped them. Nevertheless, the officers still searched the Jeep without Mack’s consent, recovered the gun under the back seat and arrested Mack, according to Goldberg.

    At the February court hearing, both officers testified. Mack also took the stand, denying nearly all of the officers’ allegations.

    Quinn, the prosecutor, said Mack “lied about everything” and defended Balesteri’s testimony as truthful.

    “What you have is a veteran of the police force who testified candidly and credibly,” Quinn said.

    A month after Watkins threw out the gun as evidence, prosecutors dropped the charges against Mack.

    Fabio Valentini, chief of criminal prosecutions for the state’s attorney, said the office had no other choice. “We obviously can’t prosecute a gun possession case without a gun,” he told the Tribune.

    Mack, however, is not free of legal troubles. A week before his case was dismissed, Chicago police arrested him again after allegedly finding him in possession of four guns and several ammunition magazines that contained numerous rounds, including a 50-round magazine. Mack was charged with 28 felony counts, mostly weapons offenses but also cocaine possession after investigators also seized $1,230 in drugs.

    The department expressed confidence in its newest case against Mack, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement.

    “Mr. Mack is a felony gun offender (and) the department stands firmly behind the investigation and actions of the arresting officers,” he said.

    However, one of the officers in Mack’s new case was found to have testified falsely in an unrelated case, as the Tribune reported in its May investigation. Earlier this year, Judge William Hooks said he did not believe testimony by Officer Jorge Martinez that he and his partner had broken off an undercover drug surveillance to pull over a car for failing to signal a lane change.

    The judge quashed the arrests of two men and the seizure of a $50,000 brick of cocaine found in the car.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-police-testimony-marijuana-met-20161018-story.html

  24. Nostradamus Avatar
    Nostradamus

    Maybe the legal minds on BU can advise if the following makes any sense. The theft charge would have come out of a complaint by Jean Delangis and Robert Richardson. However the other charges listed below would have been brought by the prosecutor, having come to light during the investigation and have nothing to do with theft. Why didn’t the prosecutor pursue these? Or is this also a case where according to their lawyers there “was in the first place never any evidence to support any criminal charges against either Barry Dueck or his wife Barbara”?
    1.Money laundering
    2.Buying and selling foreign currency, to wit, United States currency, to people unknown outside of Barbados without the permission of the exchange control authority of the Central Bank of Barbados.
    4.Carrying on an international financial service when he was not licensed to do so by the Central Bank.
    5. Held himself out as a trader in securities without being registered with the Financial Services Commission

  25. David Avatar
    David

    @Nostradamus

    Someone close to this case will have to give us some info.

    The traditional media needs to do some investigative work.

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