Former Special Branch Inspector Allister Guevarro is now seeking legal advice following media reports that acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams had re-opened a case after a claim by a witness that his statement was fabricated.Guevarro headed the 2010 probe into how a box containing confidential Supreme Court documents ended up at the private office of an attorney.
The investigation was completed in May 2011 and had been officially closed after it was deemed there was no criminal act involved, but one of the main players in the case, attorney Mark Seepersad, who made the discovery and filed the initial complaint, recently denied that he was ever interviewed by police investigators during the first probe.Asked yesterday whether he had ever made attempts to interview Seepersad during the course of his probe, Guevarro initially said he was not authorised to comment to the media.
"Ma'am, police officers are forbidden to speak to the press. You may contact the Commissioner of Police and if he allows me to speak to you, I will."Williams was then contacted, but he said in keeping with the regulations, Guevarro should contact him and request permission to speak to the media. When called a second time and told this, Guevarro said he did not want to speak to the press and so had no intention of calling Williams for permission.
"You called me. I did not say I want to speak with you," Guevarro said.He added that if the media had called him before publishing the story, he might have considered speaking.
"That information you put there is erroneous. I see they mention Surajdeen Persad. That information is erroneous. Had the reporter spoken to me before writing it, I would have something to say," Guevarro stated, adding, "I am having a conversation with my lawyers. If there is anything to correct, my lawyers will handle this."Fired Attorney General Anand Ramlogan also declined to comment yesterday.
"Why would I want to comment on that? No, I don't want to comment," Ramlogan said when contacted by phone.On Friday, Williams revealed that the five-year-old investigation was being reopened.
Recent case history
Seepersad had claimed that what was purported to be a statement in the file Guevarro handed delivered to then Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs back in 2011 was a "cut and paste" of sentences of a letter he had written to the Registrar of the Supreme Court, Evelyn Ann Petersen, on November 15, 2010, giving details of the discovery of the confidential documents.His claims came after the Judiciary issued two statements on February 13 and 19 after media reports about the probe.
In the first, the Judiciary stated that a police investigation into the discovery of court documents at the Port-of-Spain office of an attorney almost five years ago unearthed no criminal wrongdoing and "no disciplinary action was taken by the Judiciary against the officer involved in the incident and she has since left the organisation."
But six days after that statement was made, the Judiciary issued a second statement saying: "The Judiciary notes recent comments in the media which assert that Mr Mark Seepersad, attorney-at-law, alleges that he was never interviewed in relation to a matter involving court files found in the office of an attorney at law.Seepersad met with Chief Justice Ivor Archie on February 23 to discuss the matter and subsequently wrote to Williams and the DPP.
Williams announced the re-opening of the case on Friday.Seepersad said on Friday that he was ready and willing to assist the TTPS with its investigation, now headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Simon Lendor.