Putt Putt land transaction file "disappeared" from Lands Department records
Former Caribbean Shores area representative and Cabinet Minister, Joe Coye, and his former driver, Cornel Flowers, walked free of theft charges today after court prosecutor Sergeant Frank Augustine told Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb-McKenzie that he had received instructions that charges should be dropped against the two men.
Coye told the media that the withdrawal of charges today was the beginning of his vindication, and that he wanted a public apology from those who were behind his arraignment.
In court this morning, Augustine indicated to the Chief Magistrate that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had requested that the charges be withdrawn.
Speaking with Amandala later today, DPP Cheryl-Lynn Branker Taitt said that the police investigations reached a dead end. She told us that the complainant, Alfred Shakron, had indicated that while he was not recanting the statement he had made to police – complaining that Coye and Flowers had stolen over $300,000 from him in the sale of the Putt Putt land, in Coye’s constituency – he was backing down because he had received several phone calls threatening his life, and that was why he would no longer assist the prosecution.
In court this morning, it was disclosed that Shakron had written a letter to the prosecution on June 20 – more than a month ago – indicating that he wanted the charges to be dropped.
DPP Branker-Taitt told Amandala that when she received Shakron’s letter, she called him in and spoke with him in the presence of a police officer to find out why he had made that decision.
According to the DPP, Shakron had indicated that he fears for his life, and his own peace of mind was more important than the money he still contended was swindled from him.
Amandala tried again today to locate the businessman, but when we called his place of business, JEC & Co. Ltd., his staff informed us that he is out of the country until next week.
We also could not locate the policeman who had led investigations in the case at its outset, Superintendent James Magdaleno, as we were told that he, too, is out of the country.
When asked by Channel 7’s Keith Swift about allegations that the Lebanese businessman, Alfred Shakron, had been threatened, Coye indicated that he knew nothing about such threats.
He said that he has only expressed his belief in the justice system, and that he would look at his legal options, as anyone who aided and abetted in carrying out what he described as “malicious acts” against him should be brought to justice.
“I consider this to be a grave miscarriage of justice against me,” Coye told Amandala when we asked him for his reaction to what had transpired in court today. “And it was calculated, yes, by one person in particular – a member of the political directorate – to discredit my family and myself. The charges against me were totally unfounded. There was never any evidence to support it.”
Of note is that Coye’s political opponent, Carlos Perdomo, is also the Minister of Police; but when we asked Mr. Coye who he now holds accountable, he declined to name names and told us to simply “speculate,” as he says the media is good at doing. But claiming the matter to be politically motivated does not explain the charges against Coye’s former driver, Cornel Flowers, who was no politician.
When we spoke with him this afternoon, Flowers took much the same position that Coye did, except that he says he does not know why any wrongdoing was imputed to him.
Flowers told Amandala that Shakron was merely trying to frame him and the former Minister, and that he knew the case would not hold up in court.
Both men told us that no one from the Police Department ever took a statement from them, that they arrested them solely on the basis of Shakron’s statement alleging the theft.
Flowers, who owns Budget Trucking Service, said he has known Shakron since 2000, and the two were friends and business associates, as several times, he provided materials such as sand for Shakron. He had also borrowed money from Shakron, who is a pawn shop owner and lender.
Cornel Flowers said that this is the first time he had been charged with any crime, and it affected him so badly he has lost about 50 pounds.
Did you ever receive or take money from Shakron? we asked Flowers for the record.
“No,” he replied.
Do you know nothing about him being threatened? we asked.
“I would never do something like that,” he responded.
According to the DPP, Shakron had said that he could not identify who made the threatening calls to him, as the persons did not identify themselves.
This morning Magistrate McKenzie told Prosecutor Augustine that the practice of maintaining charges against people after they get instructions to withdraw charges has to stop.
“You have no authority to hold them after that,” she said.
When we raised this issue with the DPP, she told us that even though Shakron had decided that he was unwilling to help the prosecution further, the police had continued their investigations to try to see if they could find independent evidence to substantiate the claims. She said that there have also been cases where complainants have changed their minds after refusing to aid prosecution.
This is the general procedure in cases where complainants pull back, as the prosecution might be able to find additional evidence to nail their case, she explained.
In the Coye and Flowers case, however, everything hinged on Shakron’s account, since police were unable to find further evidence. According to Branker-Taitt, they were able to establish documentary evidence to say that Coye did have “an interest” in the Putt Putt land transaction, since they have a record of his recommendation for the lease transfer to Shakron.
However, said Branker-Taitt, the file from the Lands Department for the transaction has to date not been located.
“There was no file to look at. There should have been a file, but the file disappeared,” she said, adding that some persons at the department were “not forthright” with information.
The prosecution only has evidence of the $18,000 paid for the transaction into the Treasury. But there was nothing to substantiate Shakron’s claim that he paid out $575,000 to Coye and his driver for the Putt Putt lands, in addition to the $18,000 which Shakron said he was instructed to pay to the Government.
While the defendants use the lack of evidence or information to bolster their position that no crime of theft was ever committed, the DPP says that in a case where a side transaction would have happened, one would expect that there would be no paper trail.
That’s why, she said, they were relying on Shakron to take the stand.
Coye insists that his arraignment in April was a politically motivated act of malice. He said that someone was trying to send him to jail for 10 years for something he contends he did not do.
“I carry no hatred and I carry no malice, and I seek no revenge,” said Coye to the media this morning. “The people who went against me worship the same god that I do, and they worship that god through the same church that I worship, and if they have any sense of guilt, I would advise them to embrace the redemptive power of Jesus Christ and go and offer public apology to me.”
Flowers said that not only is he asking Shakron for an apology, but he also wants Shakron to explain why he lied about him, in alleging that he and his former boss stole over $300,000 from him.
“Nobody will come in here, get on a witness stand, hold either the Bible or Koran, and say the stupid things we are hearing they are saying out there, that I give 575,000 dollars to somebody, for a piece of land that belongs in the Ministry of Natural Resources – Mr. Coye is not the Minister of Natural Resources – he has no control over who valued the land, he has no control over the process in Lands…the powers that be have sent all sorts of investigators into Lands to try and find something. I’m sure if they had found something, you would have heard about it,” defence attorney Dickie Bradley told the media after charges had been withdrawn.
The defendants say that to date the prosecution has made no disclosure to them as to exactly what evidence they had against them.
“The truth of the matter is that there is not a single piece of evidence to hold up the allegation against Mr. Coye, which from day one he has said to you,” Bradley said.
On April 30, Joe Coye and Cornel Flowers were formally arraigned in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court #2, before Magistrate Dorothy Flowers, for allegedly stealing $275,000 from Shakron in a land transaction dating back to last June.
On July 10, twenty days after Shakron’s letter, the parties were back in court, but got an adjournment, as the prosecution had indicated that it needed more time to investigate.
The defendants and their attorney say that it is a grave miscarriage of justice for the charges to have been levied before a proper case was established.
The DPP at the time, Lutchman Sooknandan, had told Amandala that he had advised the police to investigate the case further, and he did not know that the charges had been levied against Coye and Flowers until he got the information through the media.