Ex-top cop drops suit against Tempura boss
Stuart Kernohan
(CNS): The former RCIPS police commissioner, Stuart Kernohan, who recently settled his wrongful dismissal claim against the Cayman government out of court for an undisclosed but at least six figure sum, has dropped his related legal action against Martin Bridger, the former boss of the now notorious internal police probe, known as Operation Tempura.
In the latest installment in the fallout from the controversial enquiry that saw Kernohan ultimately sacked from the police commissioner’s post, he said that in light of unseen developments and the detrimental impact the legal proceedings have had on the families involved, he was bringing the matter to a close. In response, Bridger, the original senior investigating officer on the case, also issued a statement, saying he had been included in the proceedings because Kernohan had been misinformed about his role in his complaint but that he was still embroiled in other legal cases as a result of Kernohan’s original suit.
In the short statement Kernohan said very little about why he no longer believed that Bridger was culpable for what happened to him in the fallout of Tempura but it is understood that Kernohan has been prevented from speaking out in any detail after he joined the growing list of people who have been paid off by the government in this discredited investigation.
Martin Bridger, senior investigating officer for Operation Tempura
The statement came to the media Friday via Kernohan’s solicitors, Campbells, and said: “I am aware that since I commenced legal proceedings against Mr Bridger there have been a number of unforeseen developments. I am withdrawing the case against him as a consequence of these developments and other factors. In particular I appreciate the detrimental impact that legal proceedings has on the families involved and this has been a major fact in my decision to bring this to an end. My sincere gratitude goes out to everyone that has assisted me throughout this period.”
It was followed by Bridger’s statement, in which he said: “In 2012 Mr Kernohan and I became aware of facts that were previously unknown to each other. Mr Kernohan has now agreed to withdraw his action against me. My inclusion as a defendant in Mr Kernohan’s action in turn gave rise to other court proceedings being brought against me both in the Cayman Islands and the UK. These proceedings were brought by the Attorney General of the Cayman Islands. These continue to cause the gravest stress and anxiety to my family and me both financially and emotionally.”
Bridger added that he had “suffered the indignity of the Cayman Islands Government placing a financial charge on my family home” and had not been able to work because of the “endless proceedings”.
“I have said publicly and directly to the Metropolitan Police that it remains my hope that all the facts as to how operation Tempura progressed over time will be addressed. Assistant Commissioner John Yates conducted reviews and provided guidance to me and the team throughout the duration of Operation Tempura. As the investigation unfolded, in an effort to try and overcome some difficulties the investigation was experiencing Mr Yates had direct interaction with senior officials at the FCO in London,” Bridger said.
“It remains my hope there will come a time when my complaint and the subsequent findings provided by Duncan Taylor are made public (they are currently being addressed by the Information Commissioner), as there are aspects of his findings that provide clarity to Operation Tempura,” he noted, as he expressed his relief that Kernohan had at least withdrawn his accusations.
Stuart Jack, Cayman Islands Governor at the time of Operation Tempura
“At the moment I am simply glad that all of the claims against me (by Kernohan), which have dragged on for almost six years, are now at an end.”
Kernohan was one of the first of many victims and later financial beneficiaries of the Tempura probe but he may not be the last. Despite his settlement and what appears to be a confidentiality clause about the reasons for the deal and the amount, comments he made in court still fuel speculation about the bungled investigation and exactly who did what and why.
During one of the many court cases relating to Tempura, Kernohan stated on oath, as a crown witness of truth, that the alleged unauthorized entry into a local newspaper office which triggered the probe was in fact authorized by the governor at the time, the attorney general and the overseas security advisor. This led to comments from Bridger at a later date that, had he known that from the start, the whole sorry affair would never have happened.
Following his concerns that he had been investigating what he believed to be misconduct on the part of Kernohan and his colleague of the time, chief superintendent John Jones, for the alleged unauthorized entry, the former Scotland Yard detective filed a complaint with his former bosses at the Metropolitan police, the Foreign Office, the governor’s office in Cayman and the current RCIPS commissioner, claiming he had been misled by the authorities.
Bridger complained that he had conducted an investigation that lasted years when, had he been given the right information from the start, it could have been wound up in a matter of weeks.
Despite his claims and Kernohan’s own supporting evidence in court on oath, Attorney General Samuel Bulgin and the former governor, Stuart Jack, have denied authorizing Kernohan’s actions and the security advisor, Larry Covington, has made no comment. The current commissioner, David Baines, dismissed Bridger’s complaint last year in a matter of weeks but then opened another related probe, this time into Bridger, which has dragged on for months.
Although few details or the reasons for that new investigation have been revealed, it has had a direct impact on another critical issue regarding the costly investigation. An ongoing and lengthy fight between the Information Commissioner’s Office and the governor over the release of a report on the dismissal of another separate complaint has been prolonged because of this additional new investigation.
Last month the Grand Court instructed Acting Information Commissioner Jan Liebaers to reconsider his decision, in which he has ordered the governor’s office to release the report and discuss the matter with the commissioner.
Martin Bridger recently told CNS that he would also be willing to speak with the information boss on the matter to help throw light on the current probe as he has confirmed that the police have not interviewed him about the issue. Bridger was in Cayman recently for several days dealing with one of the spin-off legal cases relating to his fight against the Kernohan claim, which has now been dropped, but he confirmed that no one from the RCIPS made any effort to contact him about the current allegedly live police investigation.
The estimated cost to the public purse of the many twists and turns in Tempura is believed now to have exceeded $20 million — an unconfirmed figure that could be much higher as the authorities both here and in the UK seek to avoid commenting on most enquiries relating to the sorry saga.
But the Caymanian public still has very liitle idea where their millions of tax dollars have gone. While some details have emerged relating to the probe, both in the local media over the last seven years and in the UK, others have remained firmly under wraps and questions about cover-ups and incompetence in high places remain.
Don Knotts would have done a better job than Bridger.
It appears the only one’s going to be tarnish by this whole nasty affair when the truth is exposed are those who’s tyrannical grip on this little place will have to reveal themselves for the truly evil demons they really are? Sometimes you must focus on killing the message not the messenger! To the fallen who fought this truly wicked colonial apparatus and lost their dignity and respect in the process your sacrifice has not been in vain. It has made its destruction inevitable.
We can find Canover’s emails but can never ever get or see Tempura’s even though we have paid millions of dollars for them! Different strokes for different folks eh Cayman.Why is the system here is so darn unfair?
Ask the UK representative, ie the Governor.
Righteous move Mr Kernohan righteous move where Cayman real enemies and Larry’s little children will have one less rock to hide beneath of. The sandbar boat trip double is running out of reef to protect him and excuses to promote and install him in other post. All those who played marbles with you Mr Bridger have now ran out of marbles. Games up Patna! seeee youuuu Jimmy!
Anonymous writes about ‘tacit authorisation’ to covertly enter the offices of a national newspaper at night and search – surely this behaviour has no place in the fair and transparent governance/policing of the Cayman Islands or for that matter anywhere else in the free world. Well done Acting Information Commissioner Jan Liebaers for your efforts to treat Caymanians as adults and assisting the general public to gain access to the information required to make their own balanced judgement.
Covert operations are undertaken by the “free world” all the time! The governor has the power under the constitution to authorize certain actions in the interest of law and order. Whether this fit that criteria in all respects is debatable, but the intention was to discover evidence that the late publisher had boasted about and which turned out to be totally fictional.
It may also be incorrect to characterize what took place as a “break-in”. It was a search by staffers for this supposed evidence.
Anonymous
This all started on the basis of a faulty premise that those charged with making sound decisions failed miserably that will go down in the annals of history and wasted taxpayer dollars that could have paid for college education for several kids and invest in the future. What is even more sad is that the decision was repeated by more bad decisions and no one was held accountable! And it is still continuing to this day with the attempts to deny the public the right to public records.
This is so true 6:22 am 11/04. The whole debacle comes right back to the failure of those at the very top of governance to make sound decisions. I have never seen anything like it — as someone who worked in government for many years this was a complete departure from the traditional position of protecting the islands as a whole by responsible, sound decision making. It is so inexplicable that I truly wonder whether this was not the outcome of a hidden agenda to so damage Cayman that it would lose its competitive edge. Fortunately, it did blow up in the faces of many — but it has left some serious harm in its wake.
Quote, “Bridger complained that he had conducted an investigation that lasted years when, had he been given the right information from the start, it could have been wound up in a matter of weeks.” That statement is nonsense.
In October 2007 Tempura had more than enough information to conclude that their investigation into Desmond Seales and Deputy Commissioner Ennis had reached a dead-end and could be wound up. Despite this a decision was made to expand the operation into more general areas. My recollection of this move is that some of the team had picked up what looked like promising tip-offs (more like Marl Road gossip from what I heard later) and Tempura was being expanded into a far more general corruption investigation. There was never any inclination to pack up and go home, in fact quite the opposite because by November 2007 Tempura was comfortably settled in for a long haul.
The extent of this ‘mission creep’ was only fully revealed in February 2012 when the Met Police admitted that the decision to hand most of the investigation over to private contractors (including Martin Bridger who was about three months off retirement when this was decided) had been made in London during February 2008 – that is several months before the timeline given to the Auditor General a year later, which indicated that the employment of the contractors had been managed by CIG. What the Met plan was isn’t clear but it is significant that when Mr Bridger’s £787-a-day contract ended in April 2009 his replacement was a serving Met Police Detective Inspector who received just her UK salary plus expenses. There’s no evidence that this was the case but you could be excused for suspecting that it was all a classic case of ‘jobs for the boys’.
Bridger’s excuse also doesn’t explain why he considered the disastrous Henderson arrest to be justified or why Kernohan’s suspension was continued when there were no on-going investigations.
John Evans is, once again, correct in many ways about the “mission creep,” one of which was that, I believe, most of the basis for the more general corruption was from the marl road. I recall one woman, fairly highly placed in community leadership positions that she had attended some of the meetings held by Bridger, and she went on to say that a gardner had told her that he had learned in Jamaica that a very highly placed government legal professional was a “drugs man.” So pure unfounded gossip from dubious sources began to be repeated and no doubt made its way to Bridger’s ears.
When Bridger announced these district meetings I remembered wondering why this person who had no understanding of Cayman was being let loose on the public.
Much of this comes back to the leadership being provided by the Governor at the time. Jack came in here with a halo about his brilliance — spoke upteen languages, held is and that post — and under his watch we have this fiasco — including the false arrest of a sitting judge. I believe that he claimed not to have known about that in advance — just as how he had no adnavce knowledge of the so-called break-in. I believe that that claim of innocence is as false as his claim he did not know one of his judges was being arrested. If I recall correctly, it came out possibly in court that the JP who signed the order for the search of the judge’s house (and office?) was told when he checked in with one of his superiors that “the Governor knew.”
I believe that was very little, if anything, that Jack was not aware of in this whole me.odrama — and it reflects on HIM and his poor decision-making and allowing the Johnny-come-lately in the person of Bridger to roam around ferreting out nonsense that led to the expensive catastrophe of Tempura that did enormous reputation to people and, indeed, to the Cayman Islands as a whole.
Conspiracy theorists could be forgiven if the conclusion was drawn that that was exactly the agenda.
It makes perfect sense that the former Governor was fully aware and that that knowledge may have even extended to tacit authorization. Knowing the constitutional relationships between commissioners of police and governors, I do not see that a commissioner would not have covered himself by at least disclosing details of so delicate a matter.
What I find difficult to understand is how an investigating officer operating at this level would not have understand these relationships and, as we say in the Caribbean, sussed out the truth — even if he were being fed a line.
If Bridger is genuine in believing this as he continues to assert, then I think he must have been seriously in denial.