Premier’s ex-assistant’s case drags on
Kenneth Bryan reporting for CNS
(CNS): The case against the former political assistant to the premier, Kenneth Bryan, was adjourned Wednesday until next February after the crown’s final witness failed to show up at court. Bryan, who is now a host on the popular morning radio show, Crosstalk, is facing charges of disorderly conduct and assaulting police in connection with an incident outside a West Bay Road nightclub in October last year.
The Summary Court case, which has already cost Bryan his job with the premier, derailing a promising political career, had opened in August but was adjourned until today. However, it made only limited progress before it was adjourned again.
On Wednesday the court heard the recording of the interview with Bryan and the inspector who had taken over from the original investigating officer about a week after the incident that led to his arrest outside Dream’s nightclub in October 2014.
During the interview Bryan gave a detailed account of how he was on his way home before he was pulled into a situation between an off-duty police woman and her abusive ex-lover. Relaying the events before the police arrived at the scene, Bryan told Inspector Jones how he had ended up in a disagreement with an officer after the wrong man was arrested, and even though he was a witness and had information to assist the enquiry, he was disregarded and sent packing by police officers handling the situation.
Bryan admitted raising his voice and even cursing but he denied the allegations that other officers made about him using excessive language and being aggressive, issuing threats about their jobs and using his position to try and intimidate them, when Jones put the accusations too him.
During the interview Bryan emphatically denied the allegations made by officers and was clearly taken aback by what he said were lies and what appeared to be some kind of collusion on the part of the officers against him in order to justify the arrest.
Although there were clearly a number of other people at the scene, the inspector told the court after the interviewed was played that he had recommended the charges against Bryan based purely on the accounts by the police officers there and had not interviewed a lawyer or a prison officer who were present because, he said, he could not get them to commit to a statement. Nor did he seek out any of the other independent witnesses who were there at the time.
He said he did not know exactly who up the chain of command in the RCIPS had decided he should take over from the senior constable who had been present at the time and was the original investigating officer.
The custody sergeant who was the crown’s final police witness in the case against Bryan was scheduled to be at the court at 2pm on Wednesday but he failed to show and the case was therefore adjourned. But with the current volume of criminal cases going through the Summary Court, the first available date was not until February next year.
