Elvis walks free after judge stays case over jury process
(CNS): Elvis McKeever (64) from Cayman Brac walked away from Grand Court a free man on Thursday after a judge stayed two charges against him that had been brought under the ICT Act. McKeever was accused of threatening public officials in a social media rant, but the case was stopped by Justice Philip St John-Stevens because those responsible for managing the jury process had removed potential jurors from the Sister Islands, despite being asked several times not to do so.
In a complex ruling that will prove to be an important decision for the judicial system, the judge stayed the case because he said there had been an abuse of process that undermined the possibility of a fair trial for McKeever. This was because the jury pool from which the panel of seven jurors would have been picked to hear his case was not a random selection.
According to the law, jury pools must be randomly generated from all qualified registered voters in the Cayman Islands with only limited legal exceptions about who can be removed from the pool itself.
But during the course of this case, it was revealed that for years all those who qualify to serve on a jury in accordance with the judicature law but who live on Cayman Brac or Little Cayman had been removed from the pools each year before notices were sent out.
While prosecutors were not able to confirm the reason, during the various legal arguments that have been held over the last ten months in McKeever’s case, the issue of cost was offered as a possible explanation. It appears that before this case, no one has ever queried what the judge said was “an informality” that was in reality in breach of the law.
However, local defence attorney Prathna Bodden, who represented McKeever in this case, raised the issue and brought the matter to light. As a result, during the case management hearings leading up to McKeever’s day in court, various judges had directed the administrative arm of judicial services to fix the situation and stop removing Sister Islands residents from the pool.
But for reasons that have yet to be revealed, the administrative staff continued to remove those randomly selected to be in the pool because they lived on either Little Cayman or Cayman Brac.
On the third occasion, Bodden filed an abuse of process application on behalf of her client. She argued that it was fundamentally unfair for McKeever to be tried when the jury pool process had been tampered with. She said that her client, as well as anyone else coming before the courts, could not be confident that they would have a fair trial when the fundamental process of selecting a jury had been undermined.
During the various legal arguments that followed, the judge dropped heavy hints that, given all of the circumstances, the prosecution should drop the charges.
But Orrett Brown, a relatively new prosecutor who inherited the case, told the court that the director of public prosecutions, Simon Davis, was not prepared to do that. He said he had been instructed by his boss to carry on with the case and submitted, on behalf of the DPP, that the trial should go ahead as it was in the public interest to prosecute McKeever.
Brown argued that a jury should be selected from the available pool as they were all Caymanians and the defendant could still have a fair trial. However, when asked directly by Justice St John-Stevens, Brown said that the process was not fundamentally fair.
The case was further complicated when the crown referred the judge to section 14 of the law, which implies that a court cannot get involved in a jury panel. But the problem with the jury pool selection had been raised throughout the ten months, and even though two previous judges had given directions for it to be resolved, the crown had not raised this section of the law with them.
It was not until the legal arguments began last month, when McKeever’s trial was stalled for the fourth time, that the crown began using this section of the law as a reason for the trial to go ahead.
Bodden had submitted that this section of the law breached the Constitution, and while that issue has not yet been resolved because the judge stopped the case on the basis of her abuse argument, it is just one of a number of complications that this case has thrown up.
McKeever, who challenged Juliana O’Connor-Connolly for her Cayman Brac East seat in the 2021 elections, was facing fairly serious charges. But they were based on what was described in court as “a drunken rant”. It was posted on social media at a time of heightened tensions in the community over the COVID-19 rules and what appeared to be the inconsistent application of the law over quarantine and other breaches of the law.
While he can now only be tried in this matter if the crown successfully applied for the stay to be lifted — a rare and difficult process — the court now has to consider how it can address the long-running “informality” problem.
This case has revealed that residents of the Sister Islands have always been excluded from serving on all juries based on unexplained administrative-level decisions that appear to directly contravene the law.
CNS has requested a copy of the judge’s full ruling, and we are awaiting a response.
- Fascinated
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Ok Elvis straighten up your act and maybe yo will take one a dem out in next election I. E, defeat one of the elected members of Cayman brac at the polls
That would really be a miscarriage of justice!
Lord I hope not! Northwood might be a better place for him.
Really?
The last thing we need in government is another drunk and big mouth hot head doing selfie rants at night.
Don’t encourage him.
There is NOT a single Department or SAGC in the Public service which does ANYTHING right!!
Is there a list of people/professions (other than Lawyers) who are excluded from Jury Duty? I’m on that list but don’t know why.
Bluidy good onya Elvis! When you get a charge on and rant, make sure your insightful rants can’t be construed as a threat. … you know, because people are fragile these days, and you might scare them to the point where they have to sleep with a night light on.
Congratulations to Mr. Elvis and his legal team! The crime he committed in a drunken rant was calling out some people in high positions. Well, although some egos are huge and fragile there still is a higher power that handles everything.
God is good.
He did give us marijuana.
The conduct of the police, and of the judicial administration, is what should be subject to judicial enquiry.
“No weed. No wote.”
So let me get this straight. Mr. Orrett Brown was instructed by his boss, Mr. Simon Davis, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to pursue the case…because Elvis had a rant…..And in the meantime, people get away with illegally clearing mangroves, which, under the National Conservation Council’s – Mangrove Conservation law – are protected. And if you break that law – no permit just clear them – you can be fined $500,000 or go to jail for 4 years or both?.
However, the CPA just says “naughty lad, pay $1000 fine and file for a permit…”. Too late for the “protected” ecosystem on which we all depend for protection, food, rainfall, cleansed water, tourism, etc etc…..
So just who at the CPP is incapable of pursuing and prosecuting the offenders who illegally clear mangroves? Perhaps they have been told to lay off as it will offend their developers and their political and bureaucratic buddies. Come to think if it, has any developer every been prosecuted for breaking any law in Cayman? It would be interesting to see if Mr. Simon Davis has an opinion on the matter – as he obviously did with Elvis…However, it is highly unlikely he will deign to respond to such a challenge unless it comes from a QC,…
We might want to ask Mr Davis, presumably a qualified public prosecutor, if he had considered the consequences of pursuing the case and losing on this point, if as it would appear they have been systematically removing jurors – not just for this case. Cue a list of appeals from every gang banger, paedophilia, Uncle Tom Cobbely and all for their conviction to be overturned because the jury pool was suspect. Even if the Crown wins them all, that’s a lot of time and money- all because someone was upset by Elvis. And who exactly was it that was the target of his rage?
Well done Elvis and Miss Prathna
Welcome news for Elvis, looking down the barrel, but how do we feel about every other jury-condemned inmate at HMP Northward filing their appeal now on this basis? Open the floodgates.
According to the law, jury pools must be randomly generated from all qualified registered voters in the Cayman Islands with only limited legal exceptions about who can be removed from the pool itself.
Jury pools have always been rigged. Just ask any supervisor from the companies with the largest Caymanian work force. That would be CUC and C&W back in the day.
Jury pools are indeed randomly generated from the voter’s list, but here is where the problem arises. The voter’s list only lists the residential address of the voter, so when the bailiff (or whatever they are called) attempted to deliver the jury notice, the potential juror was never at home when the bailiff was at work. So how did they ever manage to deliver any jury notice’s at all? Glad you asked.
The court’s staff would take the potential juror’s list and say I know him/her, he/she works at company A/B/C etc. The juror notices would then be sorted and the bailiff would dutifully trudge off with 3 for CUC, 3 for C&W, 2 for Public Works, 2 for Barclays etc.
Things became so bad that you had to negotiate with them. It was like “hey, that department only has 4 people in it, you can’t put two of them on jury duty for a month!”.
If you have been served notice for jury duty and the bailiff didn’t show up at your house, then you know for sure that it is still continuing in the same format one way or another. And it’s more than likely they breached the Data Protection Law in one way or another if they come to your place of work.
_…when the bailiff (or whatever they are called) attempted to deliver the jury notice, the potential juror was never at home when the bailiff was at work. So how did they ever manage to deliver any jury notice’s at all?…_
✅Nobody delivers the jury notices anymore, they’re mailed
🇺🇸Florida:
✉️Notification of Jury Duty.
Persons are notified of jury duty by 📫mail when they receive an official Summons to appear for a term of court. The summons mailing contains a pamphlet of jury duty information, directions to the courthouse, information regarding parking, and a juror information form which must be completed and returned to the court within five days, in the included pre-addressed envelope.
Summoned jurors may complete their juror information online, using the eJuror system.
Law without enforcement is near suggestive ( ͡ ͡° ͜ ʖ ͡ ͡°)
✅Nobody delivers the jury notices anymore, they’re mailed
Nobody checks the mail anymore. The only reason for a P.O. Box was because the banks and utility companies required it on the application forms so they would know where to send statements. Now that’s all taken care of electronically.
Quite honestly, I no longer have any need for a P.O. Box as I only go there once per year to pay the annual fee, and another 2 or 3 times after that to throw out the junk mail.
They rang me up at work first to check I was there.
Then I was served at work.
What’s the problem?
I did my civic duty.
Time to put on your big boy/girl pants.
cayman justice…..what a clown show.
So-unlawful conduct by staff working directly under the supervision of the Court? So off the wall that you do not even have to finish high school to see the problem? Jury of your peers? Do our officials even understand the concept?
So if the judge ruled that he could not get a fair trial because residents of LC and CB are always removed from the juror lists raised, doesn’t that bring up the possibility of appeals from all other persons found guilty by Cayman Courts going back over many years? Every case would have to be re-heard with a fresh, non-doctored jury – no?
It would certainly seem that the same logic would apply to all jury trials, at least until the time to appeal expires. It could be malpractice not to raise it in every possible case.
yes that’s exactly what’s happened. Now let’s see if anything is done about it.
One way to reduce crowding in HMP Northward!
Following our immigration law would help too.
Not all persons, because a lot of trials are conducted judge-alone, with no jury present. But for the jury trials then yea
Judicial Admin meddling is rife. Some people get selected to serve in jury pool over, and over, and over again. There’s nothing random about it.
Some Govt organizations have up to 4 employees out at one time serving on jury duty and each year a minimum of 4 employees are called out a year. The method of jury selection truly needs clarity, transparency and likely modernization.
Yet they are not missed, phones and emails remain unanswered (ir)regardless
The only honest politician in Cayman Brac!
Take out the word “Brac” and you might be on point.
I know someone from Cayman Brac who was chosen to serve on a jury. It was years ago.
Legend🔥🔥
CNS – Can you clarify whether it is the Court itself who selects the jury list and sends out the summons? I believe it is the Court that does that and not the prosecution. And if so, the Crown should appeal that ruling.
CNS: It is the administrative arm of the court – Judicial Administration – that deals with the jury list and falls under the responsibility of the chief justice. The prosecutions office (the crown) is a separate entity and falls under the governor. Sorry if that is not clear in the article.
Just WOW 😮
Keep fighting Bracka, don’t let dem hoodlums politicians and Crown lawyers from da island of Grand Corrupt win anything!
Happy for you Elvis.
Me to X 💯
Good for him. Congrats to McKeever and his legal team.
How’s Ju Ju’s pre-election promise coming along?
#freetheweed
🎄🔥
Not very well. JuJu promised legalizing cultivation of cannabis plants, but all we got was a free COVID mask offered.