Witness Protection? Not quite ..

[rory 0]

CLIP FROM A LOCAL PAPER:

 

A key witness from the Angelo "Nasty" Brennen murder trial in 2005 said he has taken legal action against the government, and is seeking to be compensated for what he called neglect under the watch of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

 

Leander Culmer, 33, has been in the witness protection programme since 2005 after he was called to testify in the trial. Police have him living at an undisclosed location in the country.

 

Mr. Culmer said he was placed under police protection when he agreed to testify against Brennen, but soon after testifying, he was left to fend for himself.

 

"I testified for the government. After testifying, I went back home and then I started getting death threats…I reported it to the authorities and they didn’t do anything about it, so I ended up getting shot, five times," he told The Bahama Journal.

 

"Now I’m paralyzed from the waist down. I’ve been in the witness protection programme ever since."

 

Brennen, 39, was convicted in November 2005 of shooting to death 34-year-old Ruthmae Pinder in October 2004. Brennen was later convicted of attempting to murder Ms. Pinder’s teenaged daughter, Calvonya Grant.

 

Pinder and her two daughters were exiting a jitney on Farrington Road when Brennen approached and fired shots, according to evidence presented in the murder trial. Pinder was hit in the chest while her daughter, Calvonya Grant, who was 15 at the time, was hit in the thigh.

 

Following her mother’s death, Grant was also a key witness in Brennen’s murder trial. She went to live with her grandmother, and was shot again and paralyzed.

 

It was a case that made national headlines with then Prime Minister Perry Christie promising to get help for the girl abroad.

 

The witness protection programme was established under the Christie administration after officials said cases of witness intimidation started to increase sharply.

 

In particular, officials in the past administration had pointed to the shooting of Calvonya.

 

According to Mr. Culmer’s attorney, Donna Dorsette-Major, the paraplegic lives in a three-bedroom apartment with another family of seven, including a mentally challenged teenager. She said the family isn’t very cordial and doesn’t share food.

 

Ms. Dorsette-Major said up until a few weeks ago, Mr. Culmer’s wife and young daughter lived with him and his brother in that same apartment. She said the wife and child left because of the poor and cramped living conditions.

 

"I need medical supplies every month. I need different medical supplies, and they [the police] were doing it for me," Mr. Culmer said.

 

"Then, all of a sudden, since they heard that I’m putting a lawsuit on the Royal Bahamas Police Force, it’s like they switched. They don’t want to buy me medical supplies anymore, they don’t want to buy me any food anymore and they’re saying I have to get it the best way I can."

 

According to his attorney, Mr. Culmer doesn’t have a nurse assigned to him. She said his brother works all day and isn’t able to give him the help he needs throughout the day. As a result, Mr. Culmer has developed infections and sores.

 

"I don’t have any help. How it is, I can’t do anything, my people they can’t do anything, but it’s their [the police’s] responsibility?" he asked.

 

"I was complaining for the past two weeks. I need to see the doctor. I’m [urinating] blood, plus I have a bedsore that’s spreading and I can’t take care of the bedsore myself."

 

Mr. Culmer said all he wants is some kind of help.

 

"The police, who have me in the witness protection programme, all of a sudden they just stop getting my supplies and getting my groceries. All of a sudden they just stopped, like from the ending part of December they just stopped," he claimed.

 

"I’ve been struggling. My lawyer had to put her hand in her pocket to buy me things and she’s not supposed to be doing it, because the police force is supposed to be doing that. And the next thing about it is, they don’t want anyone to come see me."

 

Ms. Dorsette-Major said it was already the police’s fault that her client was shot in the first place. She said had the police kept Mr. Culmer under their watch after he testified, the ordeal would never have happened.

 

Ms. Dorsette Major said after writing to the attorney general’s office regarding the matter, but getting no results, she filed a writ on her client’s behalf, but for more than a year didn’t get a response.

 

"Their delay makes me wonder what their true intention is. I say that to say, Mr. Culmer is not very well. I wouldn’t go as far as saying he is very sick," she told The Journal.

 

"However, his condition deems him prone to infections, which has occurred on numerous occasions, and it was basically due to the lack of care he was receiving."

 

Ms. Dorsette-Major said while she understands the witness protection programme in The Bahamas is fairly new, she believes it’s a disgrace that her client cannot receive the basic necessities for human survival.

 

She showed The Bahama Journal the medical supplies she bought for her client with $500 of her own money.

 

"I don’t understand why the powers that be are so inconsiderate. To me it’s almost inhumane," Ms. Dorsette-Major said.

 

"These are some of the [reasons] why people hate to testify because it seems as if they use you, and then they throw you to the wolves so to speak."

 

On Thursday, Mr. Culmer claimed his condition was getting worse and that he simply wanted to be taken to the hospital.

 

Shortly after, The Bahama Journal contacted Assistant Superintendent of Police Bob Taylor, who is the officer-in-charge of the witness protection programme.

 

ASP Taylor refused to comment on the matter, but revealed that he had just spoken to Mr. Culmer’s attorney regarding the matter.

 

Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham publicly addressed the issue of witness intimidation twice this month, most recently when he spoke in the House of Assembly on February 13.

 

"Apart from rising criminal activities it is unbelievable in The Bahamas the level of intimidation of witnesses that takes place by criminals in this society and the impact which such intimidation has on justice being served," Mr. Ingraham said.

 

He indicated that it is astounding that The Bahamas has to hide witnesses and pay money to policemen to guard them so that criminals don’t kill them.

 

"People who know about crime are oftentimes frightened to come forward because of the possible consequences for them," Mr. Ingraham said.

 

"You cannot have a democracy without a legal and judicial system that’s effective, without people knowing that they’re going to get justice in a society. We cannot have a society where the thugs and the criminals are able to hold all of us hostage, and far, far too much of that is happening in this society."

 

http://www.jonesbahamas.com/?c=45&a=16051

[Securitymaster 0]

Rory, get the hell out of there...

 

That's one of the things that I love so much about this country, stuff like this doesn't happen

[jonnybb1 0]

Well it just goes to show that crime doesn't pay...