Case against immigration secretary halved

(CNS): The criminal case against Tichina Rickfield for altering the immigration database without authority was cut in half Friday, even before the defendant responded to the allegations, when the judge directed the jury to enter not guilty pleas in connection with eight of the sixteen charges. Crown prosecutor Toyin Salaka conceded that the crown had no evidence to support three of the charges against the Work Permit Board secretary and Justice Charles Quin found that there was insufficient evidence in another five.

Rickfield, who has been on required leave for five years, now faces just seven counts of altering documents and the database to override board decisions on work permits as well as one count of misconduct in public office.

The crown closed its case against Rickfield last week, having claimed that out of the thousands and thousands of work permit cases she had dealt with during a twelve month period, she had made a number (originally 15 but now reduced to seven) random but deliberate changes to the database to render board decisions meaningless. However, the crown has not presented any motive for the alleged unauthorized changes or made any significant connections between Rickfield and either the employees or the employers involved in the decisions impacted by the changes she allegedly made without authorization.

Crown witnesses also testified that the Work Permit Board and the immigration department had been in a state of chaos at the time of the alleged unlawful alterations, that mistakes were made and that documents were not always accurate. The court also heard that Rickfield was disliked by her immediate boss and that there was significant animosity, bullying and back-stabbing going on in the department.

Rickfield has claimed that she was the victim of that bullying and what has been described as a “toxic” workplace environment.

The trial is scheduled to continue with the defence response to the crown’s case Monday, in Grand Court Two.