Rennie Dumas to Re-appear in Court on Oct 15

Former PNM Government Minister and Tobago East Member of Parliament (MP) Rennie Dumas will reappear in the Scarborough magistrates Court on October 15 as hearing continues into assault charges for which he is before the court. 

Former PNM Government Minister
Rennie Dumas

Dumas is charged separately with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault, arising out of an incident at Plymouth on June 1 last year.

It is alleged that Dumas struck Roger Simon, a Trinidadian who was reportedly employed in the security department at the YMCA Swimming Pool at Courland in the face with his licensed firearm, knocking out several of his teeth.

Dumas and Simon reportedly became involved in an altercation that was said to have stemmed from the alleged theft of property belonging to Dumas at premises in Plymouth on the day in question.

Woman Police Acting Sergeant Kathleen Sterling, attached to the Old Grange Police Station, laid the charges.

The trial opened last week Wednesday September 19 before Senior Magistrate Nanette Forde John presiding in the Scarborough First Court.

Dumas is being represented by former Attorney General John Jeremie SC, instructed by Keith Scotland, while Senior State Prosecutor George Busby is leading the case for the prosecution.

Following written submissions, including statements from the virtual complainant, Simon, and other prosecution witnesses, which were read to the court by Busby, at the start of the trial, defence Attorney Jeremie, quoting several legal authorities, made a formal application to the court to cross-examine the virtual complainant on the question of evidence of bad character."

Jeremie, in his application, submitted that Simon had five previous convictions and three matters pending before the court, including house breaking, larceny, robbery and possession of a weapon. Jeremie argued that the prosecution's case was relying on the evidence of Simon, and he ought to be questioned on the issue of propensity and credibility according to the provisions of Section 15 (M1) of the Evidence Amendment Act (2009).

When hearing resumed last Tuesday September 25, Busby however, urged the court to turn down the application with respect to "evidence of bad character," claiming that the defence was trying to distract from the real issues in the case.

Busby submitted that these dated back 18 and 12 years ago when Simon was 13 and 18 years of age. He claimed that the defence was "going on a fishing expedition in the hope that they can somehow find evidence that is of substantial probative value to the matters of the case."

Busby told the court, "The application should be refused because it has not been shown that evidence of bad character is of substantial probative value to a matter of substantial importance in the case."

When the trial resumes on October 15, defence attorney Jeremie is expected to respond to Busby's arguments, following which, the Magistrate would subsequently give her ruling on the question of the defence being allowed to cross examine Simon and other prosecution witnesses on the grounds of 'evidence of bad character'.

reproduced from tobagonews. 

2.356 Billion for Tobago in Budget 2012-2013

Chief Secretary of the THA, Orville London

In a budget presentation under the theme "Stimulating Growth, Generating Prosperity", Finance Minister indicated that the Tobago House of Assembly would receive 2.356 billion dollars for fiscal 2012-2013. 

Tobago House of Assembly (THA) in their presentation of their budget in June would have requested $1.7 billion for development in Tobago. However, they were given $350 million for development when Finance Minister Larry Howai presented the 2013 budget yesterday.

The Chief Secretary of the THA Orville London, described this a "major concern" arising out of the budget. He was speaking outside Parliament, Tower D, International Waterfront Centre, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain.

Howai yesterday announced that the budgetary allocation for the THA for fiscal 2013 was $2.356 billion of which $2.006 billion would be for recurrent expenditure and $350 million for capital expenditure. London indicated that he was not surprised by this budget's presentation. 

"There are some areas of concern but over the years we know despite the fact that we might be hoping for better treatment, we know that we are going to get what is the minimum requirement mandated by the law which is 4.03 per cent of the national budget and that is about what Tobago was allocated," London said.

Last year the THA received 2.2 billion with an extra 510 million to be spent by other Ministries. 

"My major concern is really in the development area where our request was somewhere in the vicinity of $1.7 billion. What we got was, I think 350 million and it is going to create some serious problems for us. What has been happening over the years is that you do not have the funding to do a lot of the major projects. What you have to do is to pool the funding and do maybe two or three of the major projects and over the years there is obviously a lag," London said.

London said this problem has adversely affected the housing sector in Tobago. "I think this is most evident in the housing sector. Over the years we have been appealing to various ministers that some of the funding made available to the central government, through loans and bonds and so on for the housing sector. That some of that funding be available to us too, because we have actually been building all our houses in Tobago for cash and basically that creates its own kind of challenges for us," London said.

London said it is time for Tobago to be treated with a "certain degree of autonomy" and be allowed to access lending.