OPINION:The whisper on Williams, and the public perception
Colin Williams is Director of Public Prosecutions [DPP] in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The whisper is he is leaving and seeks a new job as a High Court Judge. He has looked all over and it seems so far no one wants him in their domain, no position available, or perhaps he is simply over qualified. Hopefully the stench of Dr Ralph E Gonsalves [DREGs] is not too engrained in his robes for the position he seeks.
Colin Williams
Collin Williams the DPP, was chosen for the office of DPP by Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves. Colin Williams was a lawyer colleague of Gonsalves within the Gonsalves law chambers. Williams was a long term friend of Gonsalves. Williams was a member of the Central Committee of the Unity Labor Party. Gonsalves also made him Inspector of the Offshore Finance Authority and Inspector of St. Vincent Education. Gonsalves has favored the man and Williams has not stopped earning his money from the State since Gonsalves was elected.
At the time when Williams was proposed to be appointed to the position of DPP the Bar Association objected to his appointment.
On the 25th September 2003, the Bar Association issued a public release that was emphatic in its restraint:
‘The St Vincent and the Grenadines Bar Association expresses its profound dismay and concern with respect to the recent appointment of our colleague Mr. Colin Williams to act as Director of Public Prosecutions of St. Vincent and the Grenadines”
‘The Bar Association at no time is imputing anything adverse against the integrity of Mr. Colin Williams, but the Bar Association is steadfast in its conviction that in the eyes of the public, the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions would be viewed as having been compromised in its independence by this appointment.”
‘At all times public confidence in the Administration of Criminal Justice must not be undermined.’
February 1, 2008, Gonsalves called a press conference declaring himself innocent of the sexual assault charge filed as a private criminal complaint against him on behalf of a female cop.
The charges stemmed from an alleged sexual encounter between Gonsalves and the female member of his security detail at his official residence at Kingstown on January 3, 2008.
Director of Public Prosecutor (DPP) Colin Williams within days during February took over and discontinued the case and High Court judge Gertel Thom later denied an application for judicial review of the DPP’s decision.
April 7, 2008: Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Colin Williams, took over and discontinued another sexual assault charge against Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, filed on March 13 by lawyers acting on behalf of a Canadian national with Vincentian citizenship, who resides in Canada.
May 2008: In an interview with the LA TimesDPP Colin Williams regarding Ralph Gonsalves and sex allegations he told them the following;
“Ralph is a victim of his personality. He has a very informal style,”
“Here they call him Huggingson Kissinger, because he’ll greet you with a hug and a kiss.”
Williams said “the five incidents to which women have sworn statements were either old or unsubstantiated by physical evidence”.
To the allegations of a 43-year-old woman who testified that she was raped by Gonsalves when she was an 18-year-old job applicant at his office, Williams bellowed with amusement, “That was more than 20 years ago, man!”
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may/25/world/fg-rape25
So we see the problem, the DPP did not proceed with the allegations because he says they were too old, which we now know cannot be a valid reason because there is no statute of limitations for such matters. Also that the allegations are unsubstantiated by physical evidence, we also now know that there is no need for physical evidence to be available, oral is acceptable. The DPP is a learned man and he knows the law as well or better than most. So for him to make those comments, which some may find misleading, must bring into question his credibility and his intentions to upholding the law in the interest of Vincentian citizens who have called sexual assault. Williams should not be seen as the protector of just one man, which is a perception not a fact.
In 2012 Dr Kenneth John wrote one of his amazing opinions in the Vincentian Newspaper.
http://thevincentian.com/appointing-a-dpp-in-st-vincent-and-the-grenadines-p6663-108.htm
“In all the circumstances, the appointment of Colin Williams as acting D.P.P. of S.V.G. represents not just a slap in the face of our struggling, emergent democracy, but boldly tempts fate with a recipe for possible disaster! In our social affairs, the office of the D.P.P is serious business.”
Williams job title should have changed when the nasty act was passed in parliament that required applying for the grant of a ‘fiat’ from the DPP’s office to proceed with a private prosecution. Because when that passed he became not just the Director of Public Prosecutions, but the Director of Private Prosecutions also, nothing in the constitution about that.
There is a general belief that many of the laws passed in parliament helped protect the Gonsalves and his family, the clan, the dynasty and the extended political supporters. The general belief is that those laws actually hinder the public.
The use of the DPPs powers in which case can be brought, which case can proceed, and which can be dropped although enshrined in the constitution has seen the prosecution of DREGs being withheld by the DPP by the issue of a Nolle prosequi by him or his department.
A Nolle prosequi is a formal notice of the dismissal or termination of legal proceedings by the DPP under the powers bestowed on him or his office. Which means he can look at any case before it commences or at any time during the hearing or trial and issue a Nolle prosequi. That make him more powerful than the judge and jury in the due process of Saint Vincents Law.
One of the questions that has been on the minds of many people at home and abroad, even the minds of foreigners. Have the powers of the DPP been abused? Has the Nolle prosequi process been abused.
There has been no one brave enough to ask or test those questions, because just about everyone in SVG is running scared of being persecuted by the clan and Dynasty even sued by them. Frightened of getting a 5 am visit by dozens of police fishing for evidence, looking for something to use against them to stop those questions being asked. Many are terrified by what appears as little more than state, political, or dynastical terrorism against citizens. Bringing the activity and application of hatred, spite and malice against those selected. I am not suggesting Williams is part of that, not at all. But it’s not what I think that counts, it’s what the public conceives that is all important.
Then most of us remember when DREGs said “you can go to any Court you want, but you will always have to come back to papa.” So even if you get past the DPP and before a court, the finding does not matter because at the end of the day you will have to kneel before the master.
Recently it got worse because DREGs is currently claiming to be in office by divine intervention, frequently equating himself with Christ and quoting the teachings of Christ, which does not sit well with his Marxist-Leninist beliefs. There is a public outcry of blasphemy, so Mr Colin Williams DPP extraordinaire, in this case the saying “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” may just be holding back your future job prospects.
Notice: Some of the content contained herein came from the following source’s.
http://www.ieyenews.com/wordpress/peter-binose-ralph-e-gonsalves-once-again-accused-of-sexual-assault/
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may/25/world/fg-rape25
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IMAGE: Director of Public Prosecution, Colin Williams. (IWN file photo)