Ruel Reid, Fritz Pinnock set for January 12 return to court
Published:Wednesday | October 18, 2023 | 12:39 AM
A January 12, 2024 mention date has been fixed in the multimillion-dollar fraud matter involving former Education Minister Ruel Reid, former Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) President Fritz Pinnock and their three co-accused in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court.
The new date was scheduled last Friday when the accused appeared in court and had their bails extended.
The two men, along with Reid’s wife Sharen, their daughter Sharelle, and Jamaica Labour Party Councillor for the Brown’s Town division Kim Brown Lawrence, have been charged with a range of offences, including breaches of the Corruption Prevention Act, conspiracy to defraud, misconduct in a public office at common law, and breaches of the Proceeds of Crime Act.
The accused were charged by the Financial Investigations Division (FID) following an investigation into nearly $50 million which was allegedly diverted from the CMU.
On Friday when the case was called up, Lawrence was assigned a legal aid attorney and disclosure was ordered.
A mention date was subsequently set for January for the parties to determine the way forward.
On the previous date, the parties were to agree on a date for a plea and case management hearing.
Meanwhile, Reid’s and Pinnock’s lawyer, Hugh Wildman, told The Gleaner that he had filed the documents to appeal the recent Full Court’s ruling in which his clients lost their battle to quash Chief Parish Court Judge Chester Crooks’ ruling that they have a case to answer in the multimillion-dollar fraud matter.
Reid and Pinnock had sought a judicial review of Crooks’ February 2021 decision, claiming that the judge should not have ruled in the matter, as he had admitted to a conflict of interest.
The judge’s ruling was in response to a preliminary objection raised by Reid and Pinnock on the basis that the charges against them should be nullified as the FID, which levelled the charges, had no authority in law to arrest or charge them.
However, the men took issue with the decision after Crooks declared that he was recusing himself from the trial because of a perceived conflict of interest and sought a judicial review.
It was later revealed that the conflict was in relation to the judge’s attendance at Munro College while Reid was head boy.
But Justice Cresencia Brown Beckford, in handing down the ruling in July, said the non-disclosure of the nature of the judge’s knowledge of Reid was of no consequence.
She also found that the claimants had not satisfied the court on a balance of probabilities that the judge was biased.