Bush expects ‘incompetent’ ODPP to try him again
(CNS): McKeeva Bush MP expects the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to continue the case against him over allegations he indecently assaulted two women at a cocktail party almost two years ago. He has told CNS that he also believes the office, which he described as “incompetent”, may also appeal against the court order that stopped the trial earlier this year due to an abuse of process.
Bush has cancelled two public meetings he planned to hold about a commission of inquiry he intends to ask for as he waits to see what will happen.
A gag order on a ruling by Justice Stanley John that was imposed after the indecent assault trial collapsed last year was lifted on Wednesday, which gives the ODPP the green light to press ahead with charges against Bush.
The judge stayed the trial because he found that the legal system was being abused in relation to one of the complainants in the case. He found that important information had been withheld from Bush’s legal team that should have been disclosed. He also found that one of the women who was allegedly assaulted and Cabinet Secretary Sam Rose had both been pressured into giving evidence against Bush when they did not want to.
After the ruling was unveiled yesterday, Bush told CNS that the whole thing was a demonstration of the “worst incompetence I have ever come across” and that he believed the inappropriate pressure on witnesses was coming directly from the governor’s office.
He said Governor Martyn Roper (the current governor’s immediate predecessor) had demanded that he resign as speaker the morning after the cocktail party where the alleged assault took place “before anyone knew what had really gone on”.
Bush said he was very concerned about the people who had approached the cabinet secretary, as documented in the judge’s ruling, to give evidence against him even though Rose had not been at the event. Bush doesn’t believe that any members of the press, including this CNS reporter and the owner of Cayman Marl Road, had pressured Rose but thought it was probably the governor and his political rivals.
However, Bush’s main concern is what he sees as direct interference in the justice system by a series of governors, including Roper in the most recent cases against him but stretching back to Duncan Taylor in relation to allegations of corruption over the misuse of his government credit card, for which he was acquitted in 2014.
Bush had called for a commission of inquiry into the abuse of the prosecution process at that time, but this had not happened. He has now repeated that call and was planning to hold two public meetings about it, one on Thursday evening in George Town and one in West Bay on Saturday. However, when he spoke with CNS this week, he said he had cancelled both meetings.
Bush is filing a private member’s motion calling for a commission of inquiry into what he believes is the inappropriate and direct interference in the cases against him and the abuse of the process by the governor’s office.
He said the independence of the ODPP was essential “as the country needs to be properly served by prosecutors”. However, he is questioning that independence and has suggested the British have been coming for him for years. “We don’t need this kind of interference,” he said, adding that he believes other people have also been wrongly prosecuted due to incompetence and inappropriate interference.
However, following the ruling and in light of his belief that the ODPP will come after him again, he said he was holding off on the calls for a public inquiry.
Though he has not yet heard anything from the ODPP, Bush said he is expecting that it will seek a new trial, at the very least in relation to the two counts on the original indictment that are no longer stayed by the court. He believes the director may also seek to appeal the counts for which the Order of Stay remains, even though the witness in question has said multiple times she does not believe what Bush did to her, though “creepy and weird”, amounted to a crime.
“I’m a politician, and I hear things, and I have heard they are considering it,” he said about the possibility that he will be re-tried on all four counts. “If they are foolish enough to spend public money for a retrial when there are so many other things we need it for, then so let them… The truth will come out.”
Bush has protested his innocence, even denying he was drunk, and has repeated his position that the cases against him are not based on real evidence but are politically motivated. He said this was demonstrated by how the ODPP had pursued this case against him when at least one of the witnesses, if not both in the first instance, had made it very clear she did not think Bush had done anything wrong.
He claimed that the ruling had not been kept under wraps to protect him and prevent potential bias in the rape case against him that ended in his acquittal on Monday but rather to prevent possible accusations of bias directed at the prosecutor, given that the ruling makes it very clear the director and some staff at the ODPP had deliberately abused and corrupted the system.
Bush said the ODPP was “trying to lessen the impact of their losses” in their pursuit of him, and this was another reason why they would probably try to pursue the indecent assault charges again.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Cant wait to see what medical condition he will show up to court with this time. I am guessing he will just show in a complete body cast that he rips off like Hulk Hogan the moment it is declared a mistrial.
I’ve said it a million times for the last 30 years and I’ll say it again. The SIS are taking care of certain individuals in the Cayman Islands.
Whether those individuals are aware of it or not. Go and read the very, very redacted Governors reports over the years. Who is the high profile politician shooting a firearm in a public place over the festive period that is referenced in one of them? redacted obviously. It goes on and on every year when those reports get sent.
Any Caymanian that believes our people are for us, you a fool. Why would so many governors reports be so redacted when talking about mundane things such as Easter weekends etc?
Hopefully the ODPP will be competent and the jury will not be intimidated if there is a next time.
Dear God,
I know I only talk to you when I’m in trouble, but please, dear God, I’m begging you, can we not see his face for just one month? Please dear Lord. I don’t think it’s so much to ask. We have been SO patient, and while I know you’ll never give me a burden which I can’t carry, dear Lord, our knees are very bent and we are low.
Maybe two weeks, what do you say? We need a break.
Surely he can stay out of grief that long.
The seven agreed principles of public life, the Nolan principles, were agreed to by Bush, as both MP and Speaker, as well as the rest of CI Parliament, and senior Civil Service. His failure to adhere to these agreed principles, in particular getting handsy (again) under section 1.7, are why he was also expected to resign.
1.1 Selflessness
Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest.
1.2 Integrity
Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.
1.3 Objectivity
Holders of public office must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias.
1.4 Accountability
Holders of public office are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this.
1.5 Openness
Holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.
1.6 Honesty
Holders of public office should be truthful.
1.7 Leadership
Holders of public office should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour and treat others with respect. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.
I am very doubtful that Mac has adhered to even a single one of those principles.
Nor many of the other politicians.
Hey Mac
Can we please also have a commission of enquiry in relation to some of the cabinet status grants that you are accused of handing out to friends and hangers on, including persons who were customers of your real estate business or had no particular connection to Cayman?
Your hands are clean and your heart is pure, and it would be so good for an independent body to thoroughly consider what happened and confirm that nothing improper transpired. Of course, that would need investigators from overseas given the risk that someone might claim that many within Cayman’s institutions were granted status by you without going through the full processes so that the Caymanian people can be reasonably satisfied everyone was deserving. You don’t trust the British (even though they are responsible for our good governance and are generally extremely good for Cayman) but can we please try to look beyond Jamaica or Trinidad for our impartial experts?
Singapore, Denmark or Finland would seem to be a good places to get some impartial investigators from. They are not British and seem to be pretty good at the “good governance” thing.
By the way, why do people keep suggesting you owned Ritz Carlton condos? That cannot be true.
Pure unadulterated harassment!
It was once suggested he may have owned some condos without buying them or paying stamp duty. Boy, people can make some nonsense up around here.
Carrots and milk, supposedly.
Denmark is a great idea. I quote ‘ something is rotten in the State of Denmark’
They should be experts.
He never owned the Ritz Carlton. His company just took an overriding commission of one per cent on all sales and finished up owning two condos worth over $4m. All sorts of over crap if you look hard enough.
That cannot be true. It would never pass any standards in public life test. On any planet.
If anyone would know about incompetence….. he would be Mac bush
and interference, he just loves interfering with everything…
Honorable Bush, you need to lead us to independence and rid us of all these hate mongers. You are a real leader like President Trump.
If only the news cycle would just ignore both of them.
Troll – has to be – nobody is actually that clueless – are they??
If they got some free give-a-way stuff they would!