Legal exec charged with hiding son’s ganja case

(CNS): Evita Ann Dixon (38), a legal executive in the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), is facing charges under the Anti-Corruption Law for attempting to hide a legal file documenting her son’s arrest for possession of ganja. Dixon, who has denied charges of breach of trust, appeared before a jury on Tuesday.

An independent prosecutor who has been brought in to present the case against her told the court that she had tried to prevent her son from being prosecuted for the drug offence, first by keeping the physical file out of sight and then by taking her son’s name off the electronic version.

Rory Field, a barrister and former director or public prosecutions in Bermuda, has been brought to Cayman to present the case, given the conflict for Cayman’s own prosecutors.

Dixon, who had worked in the ODPP for over eight years at the time of the alleged offence, has denied secreting the file or tampering with it. After her arrest she told investigators that while her username was linked to the changes on the electronic file, people around the office at the time routinely used each other’s usernames. She claimed that she was being falsely accused by management because she was being bullied and victimized in the office at the time by senior counsel and others because she was Caymanian.

However, the prosecution contends that after the file had come to the ODPP, she had deliberately and intentionally hidden the physical file, preventing it from going into the system to be allocated to a prosecutor to decide whether or not the police should charge her son. She had then gone into the electronic system to take his name off the e-version of the file so that it would not come up in any searches.

Field told the jury that the crown did not have to prove motive but it was very likely she was acting to prevent her son from getting a criminal record by attempting to hide his file and avoid a prosecution. He explained that such an offence would have to be handled within six months.

But Dixon had not waited out the six months. Instead, she had given the file to one of the prosecutors some three months later and asked if he would recommend that her son only be given a caution. However, the prosecutor had followed procedure and reviewed the file before asking the police for more information.

According to the crown, when the file was returned to the ODPP, Dixon once again kept it from the prosecutor. But Dixon’s son was charged with another man, and when the second defendant in the possession case was recommended for prosecution, it became apparent that her son’s file was missing.

Another staff member was able to track the file in the system using the case number rather than his name. When they found the e-document, what the crown says was Dixon’s unauthorised interference came to light.

The matter was reported to the anti-corruption officers, who conducted an investigation. They found the physical file in Dixon’s desk and connected the changes on the electronic version to her office username. She was then charged.

The case was due to start last week but legal issues have delayed the progress of the trial. Field, who opened the case for the jury with a brief outline of the allegations, is now expected to call the crown’s first witness on Wednesday.