After spending four years in legal limbo, charges against former cabinet minister Ken Dorsett could be dismissed.
According to sources, the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) suggested to the Department of Public Prosecutions that it would be unwise to continue to pursue charges against the former Minister of Environment and put him on trial.
Their argument is that Jonathan Ash, who is the star witness in the Dorsett case, was proven to be a liar and an unreliable witness in the failed Shane Gibson trial.
The jury in that trial did not buy Ash’s argument that he was extorted for money and acquitted Gibson of all charges.
Since then, Ash has encountered legal problems of his own. Ash was convicted of operating a bar and liquor store in defiance of emergency orders. His bar, which has no valid business license, was also raided by the Customs Department after the shady businessman failed to pay customs duty.
Police fear that to put Ash back on the witness stand in another high-profile trial would cause further embarrassment to the police force and the Department of Public Prosecutions which failed to get a conviction in the Gibson trial or the trial of former Public Hospitals Authority Chairman Frank Smith.
Sources claim that Director of Public Prosecutions Garvin Gaskin, a minion of the rejected Minnis Administration, is refusing to take the advice of police.
The petty and spiteful one-term Minnis Administration brought criminal charges against three of the Free National Movement’s political opponents within months of coming to office, but failed to deliver on key campaign promises including Freedom of Information, term limits for prime ministers and a recall system for non-performing MPs.
Following the arrest of Dorsett, Progressive Liberal Party Leader Philip Davis wrote a strongly worded letter to then Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis, warning, “When such abuses of power occur, the offending parties, be they police officers or politicians, need to understand that there will come a day of reckoning for them as well.
“What goes around, comes around. And let me hasten to add that that is not a threat. It is an immutable law of the moral universe, one that is sometimes expressed in these words: when you set out to dig a grave for your enemy, dig two.
“Those who are committing these abuses should therefore understand they cannot do so with impunity. To use your own words: where you do wrong and abuse your position, there are consequences.”
Given Davis’ opposition to Dorsett’s arrest, which he labeled “victor’s justice”, it remains to be seen whether Attorney General Ryan Pinder will seek to have the case thrown out.
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